It's Not Unusual
by balanced insanity
Summary: Cheerio Kurt & Nerd Blaine. What if Kurt had never gone to Dalton? What if Blaine had transferred to McKinley instead? Based off of Season 2 of Glee.
1. Chapter 1

It's Not Unusual: Glee Season Two

AU: Nerd!Blaine and Cheerio!Kurt. What if Kurt never went to Dalton, and Blaine transferred to McKinley instead?

Disclaimer: These are not my characters or plot. I use some actual dialogue from Glee Season Two. This story will be following the episodes from Season Two of Glee, but I will be skipping a few that don't fit my plot.

Chapter One: Audition

It always sucks to be the new kid. Always. People are interested in because you're new, because you're different, but once you become a regular no one cares. It sucks even more being the new kid transferring to a public high school in Lima Ohio, from an All-Boys, uniformed, pampered private school with a zero-tolerance bullying policy.

William McKinley High School. The name was too long. Dalton was only two syllables. Blaine was used to wearing a uniform so this morning he had a difficult time finding an outfit that wasn't fit for a country club or golfing. He had settled for his only pair of jeans that weren't skinny and his most masculine sweater. He made an attempt to slick back his hair, but lost heart halfway through so it looked like he had just woken up from a nap, but that was how he felt so he let it be. He walked through the doors after a mental pep-talk, when he was immediately splashed in the face by something cold. Spit? He wiped his cheek with his hand and saw that it was stained red. He immediately panicked thinking of blood-borne pathogens, but realized the liquid was too cold to be blood.

"SUCKS TO BE YOU, GLEE-BOY!" someone shouted. Blaine turned around and saw a beefy guy in a letterman jacket high five his friend. They weren't talking to him…so…oh. Blaine looked down (which was something he wasn't used to doing) and saw a poor kid in a wheelchair covered in what looked to be a cherry Slurpee. Blaine was stunned. No one went to report the incident, no one even noticed. Girls stepped over the red slush and continued on their way, and what's worse, the handicapped kid just rolled towards the bathroom like it wasn't the first time that this happened.

"Hey!" Blaine knew he shouldn't help him if I wanted to be safe at this school, but it was a reflex. He followed him into the Boys' room.

"Are you alright? I mean, okay that was a stupid question."

"It's fine." The kid answered, "It's no big deal, really."

"Is this what happens to kids in Glee Club here?"

"Yeah," the boy took off his glasses and held them under the faucet. "I mean I know we're intellectually superior and all, but I'm the one with a slushy facial."

"Is there anyway I can avoid this? I'm new."

The kid looked at Blaine, defeated. "For starters, I wouldn't be seen talking to me. But thanks. You're the first person in a while to show any concern."

Blaine left the bathroom and headed towards homeroom. He'd already gotten his schedule and books the previous week, so he almost knew his way around. He was running late, so only one seat was left in the classroom. He sat down next to a smaller, dark haired girl. He cringed at the outfit she was wearing: a sweater with kittens, a polyester skirt and knee-high argyle socks. She mistook Blaine's look of disgust for a friendly one and smiled so largely that Blaine flinched in surprise.

"Hi!" she practically shouted. "I'm Rachel Berry, I've never seen you before, what's your name?"

"Blaine, hi."

The wheelchair kid rolled in a few moments later, thankfully dry. Blaine figured he must keep extra clothes in his locker for this sort of thing.

"Good morning!"

The homeroom teacher began to call roll. After all of the juniors from Abbington until Bullick were spoken for the bell rang and Blaine got out of there. It seemed safer to talk to no one at all.

* * *

"So, what do I do?" Blaine was laying on his bed, in his 'diva-den', or what his older brother Cooper called his bedroom. It was probably because of all of the Garland and Streisand posters on the walls.

"If I join the Glee Club kids are going to slushie me, but I want to do something! I have way too much talent to just sit around and do nothing."

"Why not, oh I don't know find an activity that's popular?" Cooper threw a nerf football at Blaine's head and he managed to catch it.

"But I want to sing! I want to use my brain. If I try out for cheerleading I think it will be pretty obvious that I'm gay."

"Then don't do that. Try out for football, or hockey. You're pretty good at those, aren't you?"

Blaine cocked his head. "Football is popular, yeah?"

Cooper snorted. "Yeah, I think you'll be fine. Just don't try-out in a bow-tie."

* * *

The next day Blaine checked the sign-up sheets on the bulletin board in the lobby. There were about two hundred students trying out for the football team and Cheerios. While signing his name for the football team he read that try outs were yesterday. Shit. He was about to run to the athletic office when he noticed Rachel's signature complete with a gold star signed up for New Directions. Oh, the Glee club. He was tempted, but left without scribbling his name down, but the choir room at four o'clock tomorrow was already instilled in his brain.

Minutes later he was opening the Athletic Offices door. Blaine saw a man stacking away pads and helmets into a bin.

"Hello sir, my name's Blaine Anderson. I'm new and missed the football try-outs yesterday, so I wanted to know if I could still…oh."

'Sir' had turned around and was not pleased. She had the right to be unhappy.

"You missed try-outs, eh?" She seemed to be ignoring the gender confusion at least.

"Yeah, so is there anyway I can still try-out or something? I know it's a lot to ask, but-"

"Alright. Let's go to the field."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, show me what you've got. The boys are already warming up, but if you're brave enough to still ask after calling me sir, maybe you're brave enough to run down a field with a pack of goons at 'cha."

Blaine managed one of his cuter smiles. "Hah, I'm sorry about that, coach. Won't happen again."

"Better not." He noticed a small grin on her face before he turned to make his way up to the football field.

It was a long walk, and Blaine was worrying because Dalton didn't have a football team. They had lacrosse but those were two completely different sports. He was cursing himself for quitting crew as he strapped on some padding, and put a helmet at least two sizes too large on his head. First, Coach Beiste (as he learned her name to be) had him run laps before he caught up with the team and joined in with a few warm up exercises.

"Dude, are you serious? You're gonna be killed." Blaine looked up and saw a hulking guy looking down on at him. "Sure you're in the right place, man?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course." Blaine almost believed himself.

Bieste blew her whistle. "Alright men, this here is Blaine Anderson. He missed try-outs today, so we're gonna see if he's got it in him."

The team exchanged dark smiles that made Blaine nervous. He guessed that this try-out wouldn't consist of a few passes and kicks.

The whistle sounded and a football came flying towards Blaine. He reached out his hands and felt it smack his fingers, again, and again, and there! He got it. His victory was cut short, and so was his breath when an entire brick wall slammed into him.

Blaine opened his eyes.

"Ouch. Come on, get up." The same hulking guy lent a hand, and helped Blaine get to his feet with as much dignity as possible. "You gotta run, man. Don't just stand there."

"Thanks. I got that much, actually." Blaine discreetly tried to check for broken bones. The brick wall was just the guy. Figured. Blaine tried to look taller.

Blaine flinched as Coach Bieste blew her whistle again, and was knocked to the ground several more times. When he found himself on the ground for the eighth time, he just lay there a while. Blaine saw pom-poms out of the corner of his eye and heard laughter. Fantastic. Witnesses. He got to his feet and went to retrieve his helmet, which had actually flown off of his head from the force of the last tackle. He straightened up and looked behind him and saw a boy in a Cheerios uniform at the edge of the field blush and turn towards a girl right as Blaine caught his eye. Was he looking at his ass?

"Anderson!"

Blaine snapped his head towards Coach Bieste. "What?"

"I said, can you at least kick?"

"Kick? Yeah, of course."

The quarterback knelt down and held the football in place; Blaine walked towards him, then backed up. He heard laughter and looked behind him. The same boy that had been staring at him was…was doing the Single Ladies dance? What? His friend was laughing and holding on the fence for support. Blaine turned back to kick the ball as hard as he could, and it…didn't make it.

"Touch luck." The quarterback smacked Blaine's shoulder and Blaine turned sideways. He pulled off his helmet and ran his fingers through his sweaty curls. He noticed the boy staring again. He gave Blaine a sad smile before turning around and following the other cheerleaders to the opposite field.

"Maybe next year eh?" Coach Beiste grunted.

"Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, coach." Blaine's face turned red. He felt so stupid. He'd just embarrassed himself in front of the entire football and cheerleading team.

Later, back in the locker room while stuffing the helmet into the equipment bin, the other players burst into the room jeering, and congratulating some guy named Karofsky on an impressive pass. Blaine tried to sneak out unnoticed but the humiliation wasn't over.

"Hey baby hands, think maybe you'll try out for the Cheerios next? They're looking for someone small to put on top of the pyramid."

Blaine rolled my eyes, and bit back a retort about the player's haircut because he knew that would only get him in more trouble.

"Hey lay-off, man." Blaine saw his knight in shining armor, the quarterback again. "That's not cool."

"Ugh, standing up for your boyfriend, Finn?"

"Shut up, Karofsky." Finn nodded and Blaine tweaked a muscle in his mouth in response. He left the locker room before anything else could be said and waited in the lobby for his brother to pick him up.

"Hi Blaine!"

Blaine jumped and turned around. It was the terribly dressed girl from homeroom; her dress today was not much better.

"Oh, hi…um…"

"Rachel. I saw you signed up for football try-outs, are you planning on doing any other extracurriculars?"

"Um, I don't know. I saw there wasn't much of a waiting list for New Directions so I thought maybe I'd-"

"New Directions!" Her eyeballs almost popped out of her head. "That's brilliant! We already have our male lead, my boyfriend Finn. He compliments my voice extremely well. I've been singing since I was two years old in preparation to play the leads in Oklahoma, Funny Girl and Les Mis, but we do need more back up singers. I'm sure you'd be great, and since you're so short, maybe Mr. Schu would put you in the front!"

Rachel actually seemed to think that Blaine was just as excited as she was.

"Um…yeah, that'd be cool I guess. Maybe I'll see you then."

"I hope so. I've got to go, my dads are here to pick me up."

She ran out the front doors, leaving Blaine breathless, and relieved. He heard a car horn and saw Cooper rolling down his window.

"Come on Dickface, we gotta go!" Blaine rolled his eyes, but was glad to see him. He needed to grill him on audition songs for tomorrow.

* * *

It was fairly nice out the next day and Blaine found the kid in the wheelchair sitting with some friends, so he decided to join them for lunch. He already understood his place in the social chain. By not making the football team, the next place he could try was hockey but they all had mullets and Blaine was not okay with that. He might as well give up on being popular.

"Hey, um…could I sit with you guys? My name's Blaine."

"Oh, hi, sure. I'm Artie. This is Tina, Mike, and Brittany." Blaine nodded hello to them all while sitting down. He noticed they all had matching black shirts on.

"Fair warning, we'll be getting up in a bit to do a performance, but you should stay and watch. It'll be fun."

"Oh, alright…what are you going to-"

"_BUM BUM BUM BUM, BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM"_

There were students singing and running down the stairs in the common area. Blaine looked back to ask Artie what was going on but he had already rolled away with his friends and began rapping.

"_YEAH I'M OUT THAT BROOKLYN, NOW I'M DOWN IN TRIBECA RIGHT NEXT TO DENIOR, BUT I'LL BE HOOD FOREVER…"_

Blaine's mouth was hanging open. He didn't know that McKinley's glee club did impromptu performances like Dalton had. They had a small group, but it was full of talent. Blaine saw that most of the students seemed to be ignoring their performance, but he couldn't keep his eyes off them if he tried. He saw the cheerleader boy from try-outs. His hair was styled up and he definitely couldn't pull of the hip-hop look, but walked like he could. Blaine's eyes stayed on him for most of the song, but he also recognized Rachel and Finn, the quarterback. She really did have lead talent, figured with someone with such a personality.

They finished 'Empire State of Mind' and Blaine raised his hands to clap, but lowered them when no one else applauded. Instead he settled for an awkward sort of golf clap in his lap and then pretended to check his cell phone for texts when Artie and his friends joined the table again.

"Wow, that was seriously amazing!"

"Thanks, although I'm pretty sure you were the only one watching. I'm guessing you did some sort of singing at your old school?"

"Yeah, I was part of the Warblers at Dalton. We were all-boys, though. Is this how you guys all know each other?"

"No," answered Tina, "We're also the Brainiac team for McKinley. I see you have an AP Western Civilizations book. Wanna put your smarts to the test?"

Brittany looked at Tina. "AP, that stands for Alien Parking, right?"

Mike turned to Blaine, "We could really use another member."

* * *

The day droned on, and Blaine stopped by his locker to pick up his math book. He missed Dalton. He missed his friends, and his blazer. Today he was trying out skinny jeans but nothing over the top. He still wanted friends. He was about to shut his locker door when he saw the Cheerio walking up to a blonde who was at his locker across the hall.

"Hi, I'm Kurt Hummel," the Cheerio extended his arm for a handshake, which the blonde boy returned.

Wow. His voice was seriously high, noted Blaine.

"Hey, I'm Sam," said the blonde boy.

"I just wanted to personally welcome you to the McKinley, you're new right?" said Kurt.

"Thanks, yeah I am." Sam closed his locker.

"Just tell me…maybe at your old school you could get away with the whole 'I just stay in the sun a lot' excuse, but I have three gifts: my voice, my ability to spot trends in men's fashion, and my ability to know when it comes from a bottle."

Sam looked like he was planning an escape route in his head. "I don't dye, my hair dude."

"Yes you do. But it's just between friends. That's not natural."

Sam started to back up. "I'm gonna go now, 'cause you're kinda freaking me out." He turned the corner before Kurt could reply.

Blaine saw Kurt shake off the look of disappointment on his face as he straightened his posture, and began to walk down the hallway towards Blaine. Blaine smiled as he took in Kurt's bedazzled Cheerios uniform. Kurt kept his gaze straight ahead and didn't notice Blaine, so he went to class feeling a lot more anxious about his glee audition after school.

* * *

"Nervous?" The blonde kid, Sam smiled at Blaine with the largest mouth he'd ever seen.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting the entire club to watch us."

Blaine looked at the members, sitting in chairs opposite the piano that he and Sam were leaning on. There was Rachel, holding hands with Finn. Artie sat next to the couple. Blaine recognized Kurt right away who was gossiping with the same girl from Cheerios practice. There were three other cheerio girls (one of them Brittany), Tina, Mike and a boy with a Mohawk. Mr. Schuster was giving them a pep talk about being respectful to those who were auditioning…or Blaine and Sam.

"Well, there are only two of us now. Rachel sent this girl Sunshine to a crack-house and she transferred to another school."

"What a sweetheart."

"What're you singing?"

"Teenage Dream. You?"

"Isn't that a girl's song? I'm singing Billionaire."

"Yeah, but I can rock it. Good luck, man."

Mr. Schuster called Sam on stage to sing first. The club seemed to like him. He did a pretty decent job and was confident. Blaine saw Kurt eyeing him up a bit. He bit his lip. Blaine wanted to beat Sam.

Mr. Schuster called his name and he stepped up.

"Hi, I'm Blaine Anderson and I'll be singing, 'Teenage Dream.'"

One of the cheerleader's eyebrows raised and Blaine tried to ignore Kurt's appraising look. He felt like he was being x-rayed. The music started and Blaine felt his heart thumping too fast for the tempo. He swallowed and tried to find someone to rest his eyes on. He made Tina his first target.

"_YOU THINK I'M PRETTY, WITHOUT ANY MAKE-UP ON, YOU THINK I'M FUNNY WHEN I TELL THE PUNCHLINE WRONG, I KNOW YOU GET ME SO I LET MY WALLS COME DOWN, DOWN,"_

Halfway through the song Mike started giving Blaine some dirty looks for eye-fucking his girlfriend so Blaine looked throughout the room for someone else to sing to. Try as he might to charm the girls, he kept looking back at Kurt. His smile was so adorable. Blaine had the desire to run his fingers through Kurt's hair to see if it was still soft with all of the hairspray and products in it.

Blaine snapped out of his daze in time for the last chorus and jumped up on one of the choir chairs, which was a lot less sturdy than he was hoping for, but managed to catch himself. Rachel looked like she was about to faint.

"_LET YOU PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME IN YOUR SKIN TIGHT JEANS, BE YOUR TEENAGE DREAM TONIGHT."_

Blaine was breathing hard, and looked up at the New Directions members, confident that he just blown them away.

Mr. Shuster clapped and smiled, "Welcome to the New Directions, boys!"

* * *

**Chapter Two: Britney/Brittany**

"Blaine! Seriously, if you want a ride get your ass down here so we can go!"

Blaine was finishing flossing his teeth; he was anal about dental care and wouldn't let Cooper's nagging get in the way of getting in-between his left upper molars. He finished and grabbed his backpack from his desk chair and sprinted down the steps, nearly toppling over from the sudden weight of his books. He heard Cooper honk the car horn from the driveway.

"Give me a second, jesus!" Blaine said as he opened the car door and settled in. Cooper already had the radio on but Blaine switched the station. Britney Spear's Circus was playing.

"Seriously?" asked Cooper.

"Deal with it," said Blaine. "It's Britney, bitch."

* * *

Blaine was excited for Glee practice after school. He got to the classroom early and grabbed a seat towards the front. Soon, Mike came in and sat next to him.

"Hey man, are you coming to the Brainiac meeting tomorrow after school?"

"Totally, I'm so bored in English. I've already half of the books we've been assigned."

"Ew, that sounds awful," Brittany had just walked in with Santana. "I don't like reading, I always forget the characters names and get confused."

Blaine looked at Mike. "I seriously don't understand why she's on the team."

Before Mike could reply Tina rushed in with the rest of the Glee Club members and made herself comfortable between the two boys.

Kurt sauntered in arm-in-arm with Mercedes and Blaine tried to catch his eye but Kurt didn't look over.

"Alright guys!" Mr. Schuster entered the room and went straight for the whiteboard, writing an artist's name.

"This week's assignment is going to be easy-listening. I know it's not too popular for teens your age but I wanna show you that slower, softer music can just as enjoyable as loud pop music."

Kurt raised his hand. "Mr. Schu if I may, I think I speak for all of us when I say that it's not that we don't love the idea of spending a week on this silky smooth adult contemporary it's just that as teens this isn't the easiest music for us to relate to. However, there is a burgeoning Facebook campaign that has swelled to five members that are in demand that this week at the fall homecoming assembly the McKinley High School Glee Club perform a number by, wait for it, Miss Britney Spears."

The club members seemed to like this idea. Blaine was astonished with how articulate Kurt was. Whenever he spoke he ended up saying something stupid or fumbling over his words.

"Spears is fierce, yo!" said Artie.

Mr. Schuster looked worried. "Sorry, no guys, that's just…no."

Rachel who wasn't able to keep any opinions to herself burst out, "But we kind of grew up with her!"

"Yeah, she is literally the reason I want to go into performing," said Tina.

"I don't want to do Britney," mumbled Brittany.

Blaine turned his head towards her and so did Kurt. "Why no Britney, Brittany?"

"Because my name is also Brittany Spears."

Blaine exchanged a look with Artie. "What in the hell is she talking about?" said Mercedes.

"My middle name is Susan, my last name is Pierce. That makes me Brittany S. Pierce, Brittany Spierce. I've lived my entire life in Britney Spears shadow. I will never be as talented or as famous. I hope you'll all accept that I want Glee Club to remain a place where I, Brittany S. Pierce can escape he torment of Britney Spears."

Mr. Schuster looked relieved. "Well, there you have it guys. It's been decided. No Britney, sorry."

Kurt was upset. "Thanks Brit, thanks a lot."

"Leave Brittany alone!" said Santana.

Brittany rested her head on Santana's shoulder. "Thank you for understanding. It's been a hard road."

Rachel started speaking again so Blaine tuned out. He was really bummed about not performing Britney. She was so iconic. And adult contemporary? Blaine was a top 40 guy. This week wasn't going to be as exciting as he thought.

* * *

The next day, Blaine went to Glee class later than usual, as he wasn't looking forward to the week's lesson. He snuck in as Mr. Schuster finished introducing a guest to the class. Blaine's heart skipped, there was only one seat available and it was next to Kurt. He tried to hide his enthusiasm as he made his way towards the chair. He sat down and grinned at Kurt when their eyes finally met. Kurt gave him a polite smile and turned back to face Mr. Schuster.

"Before we chew, I would just like to alert Mr. Schu that there's been a new addition to the Britney Spears Facebook campaign."

Yeah, it had been Blaine in hopes to get on Kurt's good side.

Mr. Schu shook his head. "Sorry, the answer's still no. Chew guys!"

Quinn turned around and shoved a few pieces of gum into Blaine's hand. He turned to give some to Kurt but he was already chewing. Blaine bit down on the gum and pulled a face. There was a metal aftertaste to the mint. After a while, everyone started smiling and showing their gums. Artie, Rachel and Brittany's mouths were completely stained blue.

"Oh my god!" gasped Kurt when he saw Rachel's mouth. She immediately went into a state of panic and Blaine laughed.

"Ugh." Kurt gave him a disgusted look.

Blaine smacked his hand over his mouth. "What? No. I brush my teeth three times a day, it can't be that bad."

Kurt pulled a small hand mirror out of his back and let Blaine look. "Augh!" His teeth were nearly as bad as Rachel's.

Their guest, Dr. Carl Howell gave Blaine the same speech about how bad genes can lead to an overproduction of plaque and handed him his business card to come into his office for a cleaning.

"Um, when will this go away?" Blaine asked, feeling self-conscious.

"Just brush your teeth. Here." Carl threw a travel kit at Blaine and the others and they made their way to the rest rooms.

Blaine was brushing his teeth for the eighth time when Kurt strutted in and began to spray his hair at the mirror next to him.

"It's not off yet?"

"No, this is terrible!" Blaine said with a mouthful of suds.

Kurt laughed. "You should use whitening strips."

Blaine willed his face not to go red. "Yeah, I guess." He bent over to spit out the rest of the toothpaste and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. In the mirror's reflection he saw Kurt eyeing him over.

"So, where are you from again?"

Blaine looked at Kurt who was done with his hair and turned towards Blaine.

"Westerville. I used to go to a private school."

"Oh," Kurt's eyebrows rose. "Uniforms?"

Blaine cocked his head. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"It's a gift. I can also tell that you that rolling your pants up to your ankles doesn't make you look taller. It just makes me painfully aware of how you never seem to wear socks."

Kurt walked out of the bathroom before Blaine could reply. He realized if he said anything he'd still be a short kid in outdated clothing with blue teeth, anyway.

* * *

On Thursday Blaine dressed with more care and wore jeans that didn't cut off on his ankle, heading Kurt's advice….or…insult. Whichever. Cooper was already shouting for him to hurry up so Blaine sacrificed wearing his contacts and slipped on his glasses for the day. He threw his contacts and solution in his bag, hoping he'd get the chance to put them in at school.

During Glee class, Mr. Schuster surprised them all. He miraculously had decided to let them perform Brittney Spears at the assembly the next day but only if he sang lead along with Brittany. Blaine wondered if that was allowed. He turned to face Tina.

"Isn't the assembly tomorrow? And we haven't prepared the piece yet?"

She gave him a knowing look. "We're very last minute here, you'll have to get used to that."

They spent the lesson going over staging, costumes and vocals. Brittany and Mike were assigned the task of choreography. Kurt gladly took control of the costumes from Rachel who was going to have them all in red leather suits.

Blaine caught up with Brittany. "Hey, so you went to Dr. Howell?"

Brittney stopped dancing and Santana glared at Blaine for talking to her. "Yeah, you should go. Bring your ipod and listen to some music while he gives you the fairy dust." She smiled, "you'll have the best fantasy of your life."

Blaine grinned. "Thanks, I'll do that." Blaine walked over to Kurt who was sorting through bins of costumes. He knelt down next to him.

"So, what are we doing?" he asked.

Kurt looked up. "Simple. Black pants, white shirt, black vest but with a Madonna Vogue style…and sequins."

Blaine smiled. "Brilliant. If you need bow-ties, I have a ton."

Kurt smirked. "I noticed. Bring all of your black ones and we'll spray paint all of the uglier ones."

"Is there anything else I can do to help?"

"Have you always worn glasses?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Well, no I wear contacts to school most days I was just in a rush this mor-"

"They suit you, but your eyes stand out more without them."

"Thanks." The bell rang and Kurt stood up taking his box of vests with him and leaving Blaine behind.

* * *

The students and faculty were filing into the auditorium for the Homecoming pep rally and Blaine was nervous. The Glee Club had donned black pants and white shirts under Kurt's orders and he was fitting them all with sequined vests and Blaine's bow-ties.

"Lookin' good, Blaine," Rachel smoothed his shirt on his shoulders.

Blaine heard Mr. Figgins finishing his speech and he took his place beside Finn and Puck. The lights had already dimmed but the stage lighting was just starting up. Blaine caught, "New Directions!" and the music began to play.

Blaine jogged onto the stage, pulling his bowler hat lower to shadow his face.

"_BABY, I'M SO INTO YOU_

_YOU GOT THAT SOMETHIN', WHAT CAN I DO?_

_BABY, YOU SPIN ME AROUND_

_THE EARTH IS MOVIN', BUT I CAN'T FEEL THE GROUND"_

The other members followed Blaine onto the stage, twirling, ducking, and swaying behind him. The song had been slowed down and was more sexual with a man singing the lead vocals and the crowd was loving it. Blaine strode over to Kurt, and got right up in his face to sing the chorus.

"_YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY, I JUST CAN'T SLEEP_

_I'M SO EXCITED, I'M IN TOO DEEP_

_OHH…CRAZY, BUT IT FEELS ALRIGHT_

_BABY, THINKIN' OF YOU KEEPS ME UP ALL NIGHT"_

Kurt seemed to be into the song and sashayed towards Blaine, rotating his hips. He let Blaine put his hands on him and slide them down his front. Blaine came center stage again while Mike and Brittany performed more elaborate choreography around him. Blaine had missed the spotlight. He missed his solos while others doo-wopped behind him. In the moment, he ran back towards Kurt and combed his fingers through Kurt's hair. He was singing directly to him now and the audience was eating it up.

"_BABY THINKIN' OF YOU KEEPS ME UP ALL NIGHT!"_

The applause was deafening. Blaine put his hand on the back of Kurt's neck and pulled him in for a kiss. Their lips crashed together and Blaine let his other hand cup Kurt's face. He stroked his jawline and it twitched as Kurt re-positioned his tongue.

"Waaakkkeee up!"

Kurt's tongue was too dry, and the motion was making Blaine's mouth hurt. He pulled back. The stage lightening was blinding. He squinted and groaned, pushing away from Kurt.

"Blaine, you okay?"

Blaine opened his eyes. He was lying in a chair and Dr. Howell was leaning over him. "That's it, morning, bud."

"Did we perform?" Blaine stomach was turning.

Dr. Howell laughed. "I don't know, did you?"

Blaine started to understand what was going on. He was in the dentist's office. His ipod was still playing in his hear. He pressed pause and saw that he was now listening 'Lucky'. The previous song was 'Drive Me Crazy'. Oh.

Dr. Howell held two toothbrushes up to his face. "Green or blue?"

* * *

Now it was time for the actual performance. The students and faculty were filing into the auditorium for the Homecoming pep rally and Blaine was nervous. He mentally went over the dance steps in his head. He was bummed that most of the choreography involved dancing with Santana on the complete opposite side of the stage from Kurt, but at least he wouldn't be distracted.

"You look like a penguin," said Brittany.

"Thanks," Blaine straightened his bow-tie. Mr. Schuster came around and told everyone to get in their places. Blaine stood in between Finn and Puck. They towered over him and he wished for more confidence. The lights dimmed outside of the stage. Everyone was excited and Blaine felt his palms begin to sweat. He caught Santana's eye and she gave him a "get in the game" kind of look so he focused. This would be just like Dalton. It'd be fine.

'Toxic' apparently had greater effects on the student body than 'Empire State of Mind' had. Between Brittany's dancing and Mr. Schuster's vocals it seemed that the Glee club had started a sex riot. Students were cat-calling, cheering, and groping one another in the stands. When the song reached its end, Sue pulled the fire alarm and it started to rain. Hard. Blaine tried to run out of the auditorium with the other Glee members, but there was a huge crowd trying to file out of the doorway. He felt himself getting drenched and was glad that he didn't have his glasses on or else he wouldn't be able to see at all.

The students had to stay out in the courtyard until the school mopped up the floors, and opened all of the windows to air-dry the rest. Blaine sat on a tabletop with Mike and Rachel. All of the gel that was holding his hair in place and come undone and he looked like a wet mop.

"Thank god we have on black vests, can you imagine!" Rachel was saying to Mercedes. Blaine saw Finn get hopeful and then disappointed picturing his girlfriend without a vest.

Kurt walked over towards where Blaine was sitting and sat next to Rachel. "I'm devastated. I can't believe we only got to do one Britney song."

"Yeah, but at least we're getting out of math!" Mercedes high-fived Kurt.

"Too true. I think I might actually learn more out here than in the classroom."

Kurt's somehow managed to keep his hair styled up, but it was sagging to the left more than usual. Kurt's white shirt clung to his arms and Blaine felt remorse for the fact that they were all wearing vests, like Finn.

"…if you guys are struggling why don't you just ask for help? You do have the entire Brainiac team in Glee club you know." Blaine caught the rest of what Mike was saying.

Mercedes turned to Mike, "you think with Cheerios and Glee Club I have time for tutoring? I'm just relying on a curve to pass this class." Kurt nodded in agreement.

"Well if you change your minds, let us know. I'm good at math. Blaine is too."

Kurt raised his eyebrows at him, and Blaine saw Kurt's eyes rake his hair. He ran his hands through the unruly curls and tried to seem un-phased by them.

"Attention students!" Principal Figgins was speaking through a bullhorn. "It is now safe to resume classes. Please go to your fifth period class as quickly as possible and try not to walk through the west end. That is all."

Blaine caught up with Artie to wheel him to class. He couldn't wait to see what was in store for next week's lesson.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 3: Duets**

(I know I skipped Grilled Cheesus, but it was depressing and didn't fit my storyline.)

* * *

"Well, after hosing down the entire school and student body, I thought, this week we might try something a little less…Britney," said Mr. Schu.

It was the Monday after the glee club's Britney Spears performance. Over the weekend the school had been completely dried and New Directions was told they were not allowed to perform outside of their choir room for a while. Mr. Schu wrote the word 'duets' on the whiteboard.

"So. What's a duet?"

"A blanket," said Brittany.

"Close. A duet is when two voices join to become one. Great duets are like a great marriage. The singers compliment each other. Push each other to be better…"

"Pst." Blaine looked up and saw Kurt trying to get Mercedes' attention. He nodded towards Sam. "He's on team gay. Look at his hair."

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "You're crazy."

Blaine looked at Sam who was playing with the ties on his sweatshirt. If he was gay, he did a good job seeming straight. Blaine didn't like his bleach blonde hair. Blonde guys always looked like they were posing for something. Also, his mouth was way too huge. Blaine would probably suffocate if he ever tried to kiss him.

"So, since you guys seemed to love the Defying Gravity diva-off, I decided to make this a competition," said Mr. Schu. He had regained the attention of the glee club members.

"The winners of the duet performance will win dinner for two, on me, to Breadstix."

Everyone went wild. Throughout the groups' cheers, Blaine saw friends grabbing hands and squealing about song choices. Rachel was already spinning through her ipod and pointing out potential duets to Finn who was feigning interest. Santana was telling anyone who would listen about how Breadstix was not legally allowed to stop feeding you breadsticks. Blaine had never heard of Breadstix before but he assumed it must be very good. He noticed that Sam was staring at Quinn while she put away her notes that she had been reading through rehearsal. The bell rang and Sam caught up with Quinn by the doorway, smiling nervously. Not gay.

"Who're you going to sing with?" Mike had plopped down on the seat next to Blaine and stood up with him once Blaine was ready to go.

"I don't know man, everyone seems to have partnered up."

"Well, Puck might be back in time."

Blaine didn't even bother getting his hopes up for that. Apparently Puckerman had driven a car into a convenience store and was now spending some time in juvie. Blaine had to hope for another member to ask him before the week was out.

* * *

Later, during his free period, Blaine was studying for his western civilizations exam with Quinn. She was quite intelligent and in a few of Blaine's classes, but not Brainiacs material. She was quizzing him on some dates when Kurt walked into the library with Santana. Recognizing their fellow cheerio, the two joined the table, which Blaine and Quinn had covered in notes.

"So. Who are you going to sing with Santana?" asked Quinn once Santana had taken a seat. "I heard that you and Brittany were fighting."

"Like it even matters. I'm talking to Mercedes later. I wants my Breadstix and I'll do anything to win, including singing with Mariah. What about you Kurt?"

Blaine looked up from his textbook.

"I'm asking, or maybe persuading, Sam to sing with me. He is so team gay and this would be a perfect excuse to spend time together, and get a free date once we win, of course."

"That's funny, because Sam asked me to sing with him earlier," said Quinn.

Kurt's face flickered to match Blaine's one of dismay, but he made it neutral so quickly Blaine thought he'd imagined it.

"Well, I'll just have to persuade him more than I planned."

"Who are you singing with Blaine?" asked Quinn, trying to diffuse the tension.

"Oh," Blaine tried to sound indifferent, "I guess Puck when he gets back."

"If he comes back," said Santana. "You'd better find a plan B, shortie."

"Why not sing with Quinn?" asked Kurt. "She'll be partnerless soon." He gave her a look that screamed 'deal with it'.

"Oh, we'll see about that."

* * *

There was no Glee practice after school that day for which Blaine was thankful. He went to the empty classroom that he, Mike, Artie, Brittany and Tina used for Brainiac meetings. Artie was already there, humming to himself and wheeling in a circle. When he saw Blaine he pulled one ear bud out of his ear.

"As Long As You're Mine: brilliant way of showcasing my unique voice and upping my game or too…intense?"

"I think you could find something more fitting. Besides, Brit is more of a dancer than a belter."

"True. What are you singing?"

"I wish I knew."

"You'll find something, don't worry."

"Yeah, but first I've got to find someone."

"Still solo man?" Mike walked into the classroom with the girls.

"Yep." Blaine was getting really tired of this subject. He was hoping that Quinn and Sam were solid and that Kurt would have to ask Blaine to be his partner. He knew that if he asked Kurt the answer would be no, and he couldn't think of anyone else who was without a partner.

* * *

The next morning, while at his locker, Blaine watched Kurt approach Sam.

"So, I may have come off a little strong the other day. Let me make it up to you. Team up with me for the duet competition. Listen, unless you team up with Rachel I am your best bet at winning."

Sam sighed. "Aren't duets supposed to be like, between a girl and a guy?"

"Well Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor would protest. Make 'Em Laugh?"

Sam looked lost.

"Singin' in the Rain? 1952? Nothing? Okay maybe you are straight."

Blaine smirked while Sam looked stunned.

"What?"

"Nothing. Listen, rent it and look up the menu for Breadstix online and call me." Kurt started to walk away, "We're gonna win this."

"Kurt!"

Kurt stopped walking and looked at Sam expectantly.

"Kurt, I'm sorry but I already said I'm singing with Quinn."

When Kurt didn't look phased Sam added, "I gave her my word, man. Sorry."

Kurt inhaled and held his breath for a moment. "Fine. It's a shame, you could have won. You know, your roots are really starting to show." Kurt turned on his heel while Sam raked his hairline. Kurt had begun walking in Blaine's direction, and he realized this was his chance to nab him as a duet partner. But before Blaine could open his mouth Finn came out of nowhere and clapped his hand hard on Blaine's back.

"Hey man, how's it going?"

"What? Oh, hey Finn." Kurt was walking by them now.

"Kurt!" called out Finn. He gestured for Kurt to come over and the three grouped by Blaine's locker.

"Listen, tough break man, but it's for the better. If you two sang together Sam would have gotten a lot of crap from the guys on the football team."

"Oh, I truly missed your homophobia."

"Can we let that go? I said I was sorry. I even put your…privacy curtain or whatever in my room. I thought we were cool."

Blaine furrowed his eyebrows. He felt like he was seriously missing something.

"I don't understand what the big deal is. I sing with you guys all the time."

"Yeah as a group, Kurt. The fact of the matter is, the way you were all over me last year, if I did that to a girl, she'd take out a restraining order."

"You have issues with me being gay. I get it," snapped Kurt.

"No, actually I don't. I have issues with the fact that you don't understand that no means no."

"I just wanted to sing with him," said Kurt. "And now that that's not happening, I don't understand why we're having this conversation."

"I'm just making sure that you're going to leave him alone now. He's not interested, and if he ever sang with you, I guarantee within a week, he would take so much crap that he'd have to quit Glee Club. Just find a girl to sing with. I'll even help you pick out a song and everything. Or my mom could. Oh wait, are they going to be home tonight?"

"Yeah, they got back from their weekend getaway…and the end of the weekend, Finn. Hence the weekend part of the getaway."

"Do you guys-" started Blaine.

"Oh, yeah sorry dude you must be so confused. We live together. Our parents are pretty serious."

"Oh wow, that's so awesome," said Blaine.

"You'd think," said Kurt, giving Finn and annoyed look. "I'm going to go find a more appropriate partner to sing with, since apparently boys can't sing together if one or both of them might be gay." He stalked off before Finn could even think of a response.

Blaine realized that his chances of singing with Kurt now were nonexistent and he wondered if he would even be allowed to sing with Puck, with the rate things were going.

* * *

It seemed that Santana had got her wish, thought Blaine the next day. She and Mercedes were doing a truly stellar rendition of 'River Deep Mountain High'. So far, the pair was dominating the competition, after Rachel and Finn's train wreck and Mike and Tina's interesting take on 'Sing!'. Sam and Quinn's performance had been nice and showcased their voices well, but was on the safe side.

During the last few minutes of class Kurt raised his hand. "Mr. Schu, if I may?" He walked up to the front of the room after Mr. Schuster's nod.

"Since the idea of myself singing with another male has been deemed inappropriate I've decided to sing with the only person in this room who can match both my talent and passion."

"So, who are you going to sing a duet with?" asked Mr. Schuster.

"Only the most talented member of the glee club. Myself."

Blaine cocked his head. That was unexpected.

"When you're different," continued Kurt, "when you're special sometimes you have to get used to being alone. I've asked some members of the Glee club as well as some Cheerios to help me out with my performance tomorrow."

Quinn, Sam and Finn were doing their best to avoid Kurt's gaze and Mr. Schu looked like he was going to start speaking again when a shout from the doorway broke all tension.

"I'm back, bitches!" Puck entered the choir room with his hands in the air, in full out rocker form. Finn, Mike and Sam rose to welcome him back and Santana ran to his side, looking back at Brittany with more force than necessary.

"Alright, Puck!" said Mr. Schu, "Glad to have you back! This is great; we still have time for you to pick a duet partner. Who's left?"

Blaine raised his hand but he also saw Artie and Brittany raise theirs as well. Puck went straight for Artie and gave him a high-five. "Bro, let's do a rock and roll version of 'My Humps'!"

"Oh, and that's okay," snarled Kurt, looking at Finn. Finn shrugged and turned back towards to Rachel for support.

"Okay, well I guess that leaves Blaine and Brittany, we look forward to our final performances tomorrow at four o'clock."

Artie ended up skipping the Brainiac meeting to practice his duet with Puck, so Mike and Tina decided to make their meeting all about Brittany and Blaine's duet. They had decided of a pop version of 'Ridin' Dirty' that would feature both of their dance moves and vocals. Brittany was really outshining Blaine with her dancing but she was patient and helped him along the way. By 5:30 they had quite the performance, and Blaine was impressed with their number. He might be able to go to Breadstix after all.

* * *

Four o'clock the next day came before Blaine was ready. He had donned his capri pants and bow-tie for the occasion, hoping it would add more fun to their performance. Kurt was scheduled to perform first and he had truly outdone himself. Mike, Santana, and a dozen other students were in full costume taking their places on the lit stage as Blaine entered the auditorium. Blaine took a seat next to Rachel and Finn as the lights were dimming.

"Alright, first up we have Mr. Kurt Hummel," said Mr. Schuster. The club members applauded as the music started. Kurt waltzed on stage in a half white, half black tuxedo split down the middle. His look was complete with eye make up on his right eye, and half a moustache about the left side of his lip. He was performing 'Le Jazz Hot' and Blaine's eyes were glued to the way that he moved across the stage. He was so flexible. Blaine was mesmerized. He applauded loudly with the other members at the song's end. Kurt curtseyed and skipped off the stage, and settled down next to Mercedes, panting.

"Nice job man," said Finn, turning in his seat to face Kurt. "Are we cool?"

"Of course," said Kurt. He smiled.

Blaine grinned at Kurt and gave him a thumbs up because Mr. Schu had just stood up to introduce Puck and Artie.

Oh god, they had been serious. Puck brought his guitar and the pair actually did a rock version of 'My Humps'. Blaine couldn't help laughing along with the girls, Finn, Mike and Sam. Kurt and Mr. Schuster were the only two who didn't seem to find it funny.

Mr. Schu was glad to usher them off of the stage when they were done and he called up Brittany and Blaine.

The jazz club members started their song and Mike and Tina cheered them on from the audience.

Blaine grabbed onto his mic and turned to Brittany who gave him a smile. He whipped his head back towards the stage lights; he couldn't see the New Directions members well in the glare.

"_THEY SEE ME ROLLIN', THEY HATIN' PATROLLING THEY TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY!"_

Brittany picked up now, "_TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY! TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY! TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY!"_

Blaine began hearing some applause, as the students understood that they had warped the song.

"_MY MUSIC SO LOUD, I'M SWANGIN' THEY HOPIN' THAT THEY GON CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY!"_

Brittany and Blaine broke out into their dance moves now, half galloping, half jumping and crotch-grabbing. They were really in sync and their voices complimented each other well. Blaine was mentally thanking Mike in his head while doing some moves he wouldn't have had the balls to try before.

"_POLICE THINK THEY CAN SEE ME LEAN, I'M TINT SO IT AIN'T EASY TO BE SEEN, WHEN YOU SEE ME RIDE BY THEY CAN SEE THE GLEAN AND SHINE ON THE DECK AND THE TV SCREEN"_

Brittany made this song her bitch. She had become an excellent performer since her Britney Spears relevation.

"_RIDE WITH A NEW CHICK, SHE'S LIKE HOLD UP NEXT TO THE PLAYSTATION CONTROLLER IS FULL CLIP AND MY PISTOLA TURN A JCKER INTO A COMA YEAH!"_

"_THEY SEE ME ROLLIN', THEY HATIN', TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY!"_

"_TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY, TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY, TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDIN' DIRTY!"_

Blaine and Brittany played off of each other well. They both were full of energy and were feeding off of their fellow club members' excitement. By the end of the song they were both sweating.

"Woo!" Santana had stood up and was the first to applaud at the song's end. Artie was doing his usual "preach it" and Mike and Tina were screaming, "that's my boy!" and pointing at Blaine. They had to have won; it was absolutely brilliant what they'd done to the song.

"Wow, that was great guys!" Mr. Schu clapped along while he waited for everyone to settle down and take their seats. Alright, Friday we'll vote on the winners, so get there early to see who's going to Breadstix!"

There was a rush to the door but Blaine took his time as he was still regaining his breath. He was still high on adrenalin. He really had missed performing in front of a crowd. He ended up walking down the hallway next to Kurt.

"Good job," said Kurt.

"Thanks," said Blaine, beaming broadly, "you were amazing, you have such a voice."

"It's a gift," Kurt smiled. "You have a lot of stage presence. I was surprised."

Blaine rolled his eyes, "why, 'cause I'm so short?"

"No, because you're so quiet."

"Oh." Blaine went red. "Well, I love performing."

"It shows." Kurt put his hand on the door to the boys' restroom. Before he could open it, Blaine blurted out, "Hey!" before he could stop himself.

Kurt paused and turned around.

"If neither of us wins, do you think you'd want to go to Breadstix anyway?"

Kurt looked surprised. "You mean…"

"As… a date…yeah." Blaine bit his lip as he watched Kurt's expression.

"Oh...um, wow. I'm flattered but I don't really think we have anything in common."

"Oh…really?" Blaine scratched the back of his neck and took a deep breath. "I mean, we're both in Glee. We both love to perform."

"I know that. But at the end of the day I'm a Cheerio, and you're a member of the Academic Decathlon Team. Sorry, I don't think our paths will cross any more than this."

"Oh." Blaine didn't know what else to say.

"You seem like a sweet guy for what it's worth."

"Thanks…I'll see you around." Blaine turned and walked away before Kurt could reply. Blaine didn't want him to say anything anyway. All of the ecstatic feelings he had before were completely smothered in humiliation. Why did he do that? He and Kurt barely knew each other. And he was right, Kurt was popular, and poised, and confident and Blaine was quiet, and awkward and stammered when he got nervous. Blaine wanted to kick himself.

All of the sudden he was pulled back as a pair of hands clung around his neck and he felt someone jump on his back.

"That was awesome! You have my vote!"

"Augh! Brittany, you're on my team. A vote for you is a vote for me."

"Oh, right. Well we have to do duets more often. Oh! Maybe you could come on my show, Fondue for Two?"

"What?"

"Yeah, we can perform and Lord Tubbington will be our judge and eat cheese. It'll be fun."

"Lord...sure Brittany. That sounds great."

Brittany jumped off of his back and kissed him on the cheek. "Bye Blaine!" she skipped off and left Blaine alone in the hallway with his thoughts.

As promised, the week ended by voting for the duet winners. Blaine voted for Mercedes and Santana. He planned on hiding in a blanket fort in his basement surrounded by 80s movies and HALO that weekend, so Breadstix could wait.

Mr. Schuster counted the votes and deemed Quinn and Sam the winners. Santana nearly knocked half of the chairs in the choir room over in protest. While Sam and Quinn shared nervous smiles, Kurt looked just as miserable as Blaine. Damnit. Blaine still felt bad for him. He wanted to hug Kurt and tell him that he was far more talented, and culturally educated then Sam would ever be and that he deserved to win. Kurt saw Blaine staring and Blaine looked away in embarrassment. Hopefully Kurt was right, and their paths wouldn't cross much outside of the choir room.

Note: The Ridin' Dirty cover I based Brittany's and Blaine's duet off of was by Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer if you want to check them out! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 4: Never Been Kissed**

After Blaine had watched his 80s movie marathon (Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and eaten four cartons of Ben and Jerry's ice cream he came back to school with a new outlook. Coop had visited Blaine's fort over the weekend and told him not to worry about Kurt. Cooper told Blaine that he just had to be himself, and be awesome and Kurt would eventually see what he missed out on. Then he could punch him in the face and have hot gay sex with all the other guys in show choir. Cooper didn't understand that not all of the guys in glee club were gay, but Blaine took half of his advice. He made sure to wear his brightest pair of colored jeans, rolled up to show off his ankles. He slicked his hair in a small mountain of gel, donned a polo, and put on his pink sunglasses. He would be awesome. And Kurt would like it.

As it turns out, being awesome meant a freezing cold slushie in the face while walking to class. Blaine stood completely still in the hallway, half frozen with shock, the other half from the ice that was sliding down his shirt. The football team member who had nailed him laughed and walked away with his friend but not before shouting, "Faggot!" over his shoulder.

Blaine swallowed his humiliation and headed towards the nearest boys' room. He turned on the faucet and lowered his face under it, the hot water stinging against his skin. The slushie had been purple, so it didn't show on his black polo, but Blaine was significantly damp. The slush and water and undone most of his hair from its gel cage, and he had gotten some slushie in his eyes, so he had to remove his contacts and put on his glasses. He bit hard on his bottom lip and closed his eyes. This wouldn't stop him from being himself. He grinned and left the rest room, going to rock his fro and new look for the rest of the day. Blaine was completely dry once he made it to Glee practice. He sat down next between Mike and Brittany. She looked to Santana and asked, "Who is that?"

"Brit, it's Blaine. His hair just isn't flattened with axel grease today."

"Oh." Brittany asked to play with Blaine's hair and had actually started braiding it when Mr. Schu walked in.

"Alright guys, we've got our competition for sectionals!" Rachel shushed everyone and leaned forward so far on her chair that she nearly overbalanced and fell over.

"From Westerville, we've got the Dalton Academy Warblers!"

Blaine's eyes bugged. No way we're they competing against the Warblers! He grinned but his face fell, along with Kurt's when Santana said, " Okay hold up like a million gay jokes just popped into my head."

Mr. Schu ignored her comment. "And the hipsters…all senior citizens getting their high school GEDs. So! Since it got you so jazzed last year it'll be our second annual boys versus girls mash-up competition. So split up into groups and figure out what songs you're gonna sing."

Blaine escaped from his hair stylist and crossed to the other side of the room to join Finn, Puck, Mike, Artie, and Sam. Kurt got up and made his way over to the girls' side. Without even looking behind him Mr. Schu said, "Kurt, I'm gonna say it again. Boys' team."

Kurt slunked over to the other side of the room and collapsed into the chair next to Blaine. Once he realized whom he was sitting next to he became fascinated with his fingernails for the rest of class. He didn't participate while Blaine and the other guys listed songs from Kanye to Van Halen. Blaine threw out a few ideas like 'NSYNC and 98 Degrees which seemed to perk Kurt's interest but were outvoted by the other guys. When the bell rang Kurt turned to face Blaine.

"We need to take over."

"What?"

Kurt waited until the others had walked away before explaining himself. "If they pick the songs we're just going to do rock meets rock and it's been done before. I bet between the two of us we could create a great mash-up, but we've got to get them to agree with us."

"Okay…" Blaine didn't feel that this competition was really important but partnering up with Kurt was keeping his interest.

"You're friends with Artie and Mike, so you can convince them our mash-up is better, and I've got blackmail on Finn. I liked your 'NYSNC idea, I think there's something there."

Kurt and Blaine started walking down the hallway together and Blaine was amazed at how easily they were keeping a conversation going. They were both so involved with music and knew so many artists that picking just two songs for a mash-up was becoming difficult. Kurt was suggesting a three-song mash-up when a big hulking football team player pushed him into the row of lockers. Kurt was enraged.

"What is your problem?"

The football player turned around, eyebrows raised. "You're talking back to me? You want a piece of the fury?"

Kurt narrowed his eyes. "The fury?"

"That's what I named my fist," said the football player, flexing it in Kurt's face.

"Well with that level of creativity you could easily become assistant manager at a rendering plant."

Blaine held back a laugh.

"I don't know what that is," said the football player, "but if I found out it's bad, the fury's gonna find you." He slammed Kurt again into the row of lockers and walked away.

"Are you okay?" Blaine didn't know what to do. He thought that Kurt had handled himself so well but he noticed he was trying to hold back tears. "Let's go to Mr. Schu."

Blaine took Kurt to Mr. Shu's office. He waited outside and in ten minutes Kurt emerged looking calmer, but lost.

"There's nothing he can do, go figure."

"Does this happen a lot?"

"Almost everyday. And it's always…him. He has this personal vendetta against me."

"If it makes you feel any better, I got my first slushie today."

"That almost does. What flavor?"

"Grape."

"That's the worst to get out of clothes. Make sure you use baking soda."

"Thanks, I will. I don't get it though. You're on the Cheerios, aren't you not supposed to be bullied?"

"Well that was the general idea…Most of the bullying has stopped since this," He gestured to his uniform. "I mean I don't get thrown into dumpsters anymore, but…Karofsky. He hasn't stopped."

Blaine was still trying to imagine Kurt getting thrown into a dumpster when Kurt pointed out that they had both missed half of their fourth period class.

"Crap, I gotta go. See you after school!" Blaine dashed off, leaving Kurt in the empty hallway.

* * *

Mr. Schu opened up their after school rehearsal with an announcement. He said that to make the competition more interesting, the boys were going to sing songs traditionally sung by girl groups and the girls would sing songs done by boy groups.

Kurt squealed and the excitement shown in his eyes as he gave Blaine a high-five. "At least something good came out of our talk."

A few minutes later, the boys gathered in an empty classroom since the girls had claimed the choir room. Kurt was in front of the classroom, pointer in hand, showing off costume ideas with swatches of fabric.

"Don't worry gentlemen, Blaine and I have this completely under control. Now, obviously for this medley to work I'm gonna have to sing lead and of course we're singing Dianna Ross."

"Ahem," Blaine cleared his throat. It was Artie, however, who spoke up.

"Isn't this lesson about opposites? I mean you in a sequin gown and feather boa is exactly what you'd expect."

Kurt looked annoyed. "Okay who said anything about a gown?"

Puck stood up. "Dude, why don't you make yourself useful and put some rat poison in the old folks' jello or visit the Garglers?"

"Warblers," said Blaine and Kurt at the same time. Kurt looked at him.

"Whatever," said Puck. "See what they're up to. And you can wear all the feathers you want. You'll blend right in."

Kurt glared at Puck. "Fine." He snapped. He stalked out of the classroom while all of the guys watched him go. Blaine got up to follow him.

"Kurt!" Blaine shouted at Kurt's retreating figure.

"I'm going to see the Warblers. Maybe they won't have a problem with performing girls' songs," said Kurt without stopping.

"They won't."

Kurt stopped walking and looked at Blaine. "And how can you possibly know that? I'm not going back into that classroom."

"Fine, let's go see them," Blaine had caught up to Kurt and he paused, taking in the anger and hurt on Kurt's face. He started towards the exit. "But you should probably know Kurt, that I was the lead singer of the Warblers last year."

Kurt's jaw dropped. "What!" He grabbed onto Blaine's arm and spun him around, mouth still open.

"We did girl songs all the time. Do you wanna go see them still? Practice is at five. We could make it."

Kurt finally closed his mouth. "I'd love that."

A few minutes later Kurt was buttoning up his coat while Blaine sent a quick text to Mike and Cooper, letting them know that they were going to Dalton and would be missing the rest of practice. Blaine was so glad he was able to score the car today. He and Kurt walked out of the lobby and towards the parking lot. It was windy and overcast and Blaine drew his shoulders in against the cold.

"Don't your ankles freeze?" asked Kurt

Blaine laughed. "This really bothers you, doesn't it?"

Kurt shrugged. "So you went to Dalton. I never would have guessed. You must be loaded."

"We're alright."

"Why the transfer?"

They had reached Blaine's car and he pushed the button on his remote to unlock the doors. The boys clamored in and Blaine grabbed the extra CDs off of Kurt's seat and threw them in the back.

"Financial issues. Tuition there is steep, so I'm here now."

"Oh. Do you miss it?"

"Everyday." Blaine put the key in the ignition and started up the car. The radio started playing and Blaine turned down the volume when he saw Kurt's expression in the rear-view mirror. "Don't get me wrong, I like it here too. Glee club is great, and I've made friends on the Brainiacs. It's the bullying I'm not so fond of."

Kurt sighed. "Well that I can relate to."

They didn't say much on their drive over. Blaine turned the radio up and they sang along instead. Pink's song 'Perfect' came on, and both boys got into the song, pulling dramatic faces while Kurt mocked Rachel's hand movements. They were laughing before they could finish the chorus. Blaine pulled into the visitors' parking and they both jogged to the entrance, eager to get out of the cold. Blaine held the door for Kurt who gave him a small smile while skipping inside.

"Whoa," Kurt stared at the glass ceiling and spiral staircase. "It's gorgeous."

Blaine smiled, looking around as well and taking in his old school's beauty. He had missed it.

"So where's the choir room?"

"Come on, I know a short-cut." Blaine grabbed Kurt's arm and pulled him down a hallway. When they'd reached the practice room, Blaine leaned against the doorframe, Kurt by his side. He released Kurt's hand and looked at him. Kurt was in complete awe of the performance they had just walked in on. The Dalton Academy Warblers, donned in blue blazers with red piping were singing Billy Joel's 'Uptown Girl'. Some of the boys broke character once they recognized Blaine. They waved and smiled, but then carried on with the performance. A particularly good-looking boy that Blaine didn't know smiled at Blaine and walked towards him. He grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the others, insisting he join in. Blaine caught on with the choreography quickly and sang back up, loving being back at Dalton with the Warblers, his friends, while having Kurt's eyes glued on him from the doorway. When their song ended he applauded them and succumbed to a dozen hugs.

"Is this your triumphant return to Dalton?" a Warbler asked.

"I wish. I'm just visiting. This is my friend, Kurt," Blaine motioned for Kurt to join them.

"Hi," Kurt looked nervous.

"We're looking for ideas for a little competition we're doing at McKinley. Boys vs. Girls. Catch is, boys are singing traditional girl songs. We thought we could use your help."

The Warblers started shouting out ideas from Katy Perry, to Florence and the Machine and Niki Minaj. Kurt seemed completely overwhelmed by how excited a group of well-dressed boys could be about singing girl songs. After they had picked a good mash-up medley, 'Stop in the Name of Love' and 'Free Your Mind' and Blaine had caught up with his friends he took Kurt on a tour of Dalton.

"No wonder you miss it," said Kurt later while Blaine showed him the library. "Are they all…gay?"

Blaine smiled. "No, Dalton just has a very strict zero-tolerance bullying policy. Everyone is treated the same. The uniforms help enforce that."

Kurt swallowed and blinked back tears.

"Kurt? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just…it'd be nice to go here, you know?"

Blaine nodded. "Hey, let's go grab a coffee."

* * *

Blaine took Kurt to The Lima Bean. It was a Dalton hang out that he hadn't been to for a while. He bought drinks for himself and Kurt and joined him at a table.

"Enjoy," said Blaine, sliding a latte towards Kurt.

"Thank you," said Kurt, taking his drink from Blaine. He took the lid off of his latte and blew on the foam to let it cool down before taking a sip. Blaine waited for Kurt to say something; he seemed to be struggling for words.

"Before you got here, I was the only person out of the closet at McKinley. I've tried to stay strong about it, but Karofsky has just made it his mission to make my life a living hell. And nobody seems to notice."

Blaine put his hands around his drip to keep them warm. "I know how you feel. I got taunted at my old school, before Dalton, and it really pissed me off. I even complained about it to the faculty and they were sympathetic and all but you could just tell nobody really cared. It was like hey, if you're gay your life's just gonna be miserable. Sorry. There's nothing we can do about it. So I left. I came to Dalton. Simple as that. Of course, now I'm at McKinley."

Kurt nodded.

"You've got to confront him, Kurt. Call him out. I ran, Kurt. I didn't stand up. I let bullies chase me away and it's something I really, really regret. But now I have another chance. I'm not letting bullies get the best of me, and neither are you."

Kurt smiled at Blaine. "Thanks, Blaine. I have to ask, why are you being so nice to me? I don't deserve it."

Blaine shrugged. "I think the both of us could use a friend right now, so no harm done. It's probably for the better."

Blaine and Kurt drove back to Lima, radio blaring. They sang and laughed and Karofsky didn't matter. The guys at school, or the faculty that didn't care didn't matter. None of it mattered because Blaine and Kurt had someone to talk to, and someone to sing with, and something to sing for, and that would get them out of Ohio someday.

* * *

The other boys approved of Kurt and Blaine's song selections the next day at practice. Blaine had talked Kurt out of boas and instead the boys would be performing in suits with blue shiny coats and black bow-ties. Mike began the choreography while Sam and Artie went over vocal parts. The boys were working hard, and having fun. Blaine really got along well with Puck, Finn and Sam once they found out he was a gamer. They even invited him to hang out the following weekend. Throughout the week, Blaine found didn't mind the occasional shove or insult because he could tell Puck about it later and he'd kick their asses. He finally felt like a member of New Directions, and what was better, he and Kurt were still getting along. They had started to text each other while watching The Bachelorette and had gone to the Lima Bean again since visiting Dalton. Blaine enjoyed spending time with Kurt but understood that they were strictly friends, so he tried not to get his hopes up about anything more. After school Blaine and Kurt were going to go pick up the boys' suits and Blaine was going to try to convince Kurt not to add too many sequins to them. He was waiting for Kurt in the lobby, texting Artie to pass the time.

(2:34)

So are you two official or what?

(2:34)

What? Who?

(2:35)

You and Kurt. You've been spending so much time together lately and every time he speaks you get this dumb smile on your face.

(2:36)

Is it that obvious? But no, we're not dating. I asked him out and he turned me down.

(2:37)

Oh, sorry man. Are you still coming over for our HALO-thon Friday?

(2:37)

Wouldn't miss it.

Blaine looked at the time. It was almost 2:45; he was supposed to meet up with Kurt fifteen minutes ago. He sent him a text.

(2:43)

Hey, you still coming?

Blaine waited for a response until three. He went to go see if Kurt was by his locker, in the library, and the choir room. Maybe he was getting something from his Cheerios locker. Blaine went into the boys' locker room.

"Kurt?" he called out. He heard sniffling. Blaine walked past a few rows of lockers before seeing Kurt standing against the lockers, looking completely horrified.

"Kurt?" He climbed over the bench to get to him. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Kurt's face crinkled and he let out a wail. Tears streamed down his face and he clung onto Blaine, crying freely. Blaine steadied himself, not expecting the total weight of the other boy to crash into him. He embraced Kurt and rubbed his back. What was wrong?

"It's okay, I'm here."

Blaine scratched Kurt's shoulders. He was so scared. He wanted to know what happened to Kurt; he had never seen him lose control. He was always so proud and composed. Something terrible most have happened. Kurt's breathing quickened and he seemed to be hyperventilating. Blaine held him tighter and started to talk to him, to calm him down.

"Hey, listen I'm here now. It's okay, just breathe, you're alright." Blaine repeated various phrases of this until Kurt's breathing was less critical. He waited quietly, holding onto Kurt tightly. Eventually Kurt seemed to have exhausted his tears and was breathing almost normally. Blaine let him go and took a step back, and put his hands on Kurt's shoulders.

"Kurt. What happened?"

"He-He k-" Kurt couldn't finish his sentence.

Blaine walked Kurt towards and bench and sat down next to him.

"He?"

"Karofsky," Kurt choked out.

Oh no. Kurt had stood up to Karofsky like Blaine told him to and now something horrible had happened. Blaine was so stupid, how could he give advice like that when he couldn't even act on it himself?

"What did he do, Kurt?"

"He…he k-kissed me."

Blaine stared at Kurt. "He what?"

"He kissed me."

"He didn't…he did didn't do anything else, right? He didn't force you to-"

"No. Well, he might have. He tried to kiss me again but I pushed him off and he left."

Blaine couldn't comprehend what had happened. Kurt told him all about chasing Karofsky back into the locker room and their screaming match that had ended with Karofsky grabbing his face and planting a kiss on him. Blaine's mouth hung open.

"What? So that's why he's bullying you? He likes you? He's gay! He's acting like a twelve year old school boy!"

Blaine jumped up and started pacing. "You can't just do that to a person, that's a violation! You need to report him!" He turned to Kurt who was rubbing his nose.

"I don't have any proof. If he punched me I might, but a kiss…"

"He can't get away with this. We're going to talk to him! This is absolutely ridiculous, he can not just do that to you!"

He grabbed Kurt's arm and marched him out of the locker room.

"Blaine!" Kurt stopped walking and the force jerked Blaine backwards.

"What?"

"I don't think either of us are in the right state to talk him right now. Let's just…let's talk to him tomorrow. Let's get coffee or something."

"No, we cannot let him get away with this. I know exactly what I'm going to say to him and exactly which parts of his body I'm going to break, so-"

"Blaine, please. I don't want to see him again today. I-" Kurt's eyes began to brim with tears again.

Blaine's scowl softened as his anger ebbed away to pity. "Okay. But I don't really need any coffee in my system right now. I have a better idea. Let's go to my fort."

"Your fort?" Kurt's judgmental look was back.

* * *

Blaine drove Kurt to his house, and on the way his anger faded away and was replaced by panic. He was taking Kurt to his house. Kurt was going to meet his parents…and possibly see his bedroom…and his brother. He gulped as he turned into the driveway.

"Oh yeah, you're just all right financially," said Kurt sarcastically while getting out of the car.

Blaine rummaged for his keys and opened the back door and Kurt followed him inside.

"Hello?" Blaine called out once he and Kurt had entered the house.

"Blaine honey, is that you?"

"Yeah, hey mom! I've brought a friend for dinner if that's okay!"

Blaine heard his mother come rushing down the steps and braced himself.

"A friend!" Blaine's mother walked into the kitchen, smiling. Blaine wished she would blink.

"Mom, this is Kurt. He's a friend from school."

Kurt took a few steps forward and reached out his hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Oh and you as well, dear." Mrs. Anderson let go of Kurt's hand and smiled at Kurt for so long that even Blaine got uncomfortable.

"Mom, we're gonna hang out downstairs. Is it okay if we order pizza?"

"Nonsense! I don't want your friend to think I can't cook! I'll make you dinner and I'll have Cooper send it down."

"Thanks!" Blaine steered Kurt towards the basement door and they went downstairs. There wasn't much in the room, or if it was, it was covered in the most elaborate blanket fort Kurt had ever seen.

"Sorry, I don't bring people here often. My mom gets excited."

"She seemed nice," said Kurt walking towards the fort. "Okay this is the most ridiculous and most impressive thing I have ever seen."

Blaine laughed. "Yeah, I built it the first few weekends of the semester. Go inside, it's even better."

Kurt pushed back a blanket and entered. Blaine heard him gasp from outside and followed him in.

There were pillows and beanbag chairs and a dozen blankets and comforters all over the floor. Lights were stringed up top, exposing pockets of air, and the fort included the television and stacks of DVDs and video games that Blaine had watched and played already.

"This is amazing," said Kurt sitting down on a stack of pillows. He tossed his backpack on the ground and settled in.

Blaine sat in a beanbag chair and threw his bag outside of the fort. He knew homework was going to be put off for a while.

"I take great pride in it. I hang out here more than my own bedroom."

Kurt looked at Blaine. "Can I ask you something? I've been wondering this for a while."

Blaine readied himself. "Sure."

"Why did you try out for the football team?"

"Oh," Kurt had recognized him from try-outs. Damn. "Well, why did you try out for Cheerios? I wanted to be popular. I wanted people to like me."

"You know, I was on the football team."

Blaine stared at him. "What? You?"

Kurt laughed. "I know, right? Yeah, for a few weeks. It was before I came out to my dad. I wanted him to be proud of me. I was the kicker. We actually won our first game in six years because of me."

Blaine was in awe. "Wow. I cannot imagine you doing sports, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, it didn't last long. I could only kick to the Single Ladies dance and eventually the team got tired of it."

"Is that why you were doing that on the field?" Blaine blurted out before he could help it.

Kurt covered his face. "I can't believe you saw that! Yeah that's how I would kick. I taught the whole football team the dance."

Blaine gave him a mischievous smile. "Can you teach me?"

Cooper came stomping down the stairs a half hour later carrying a tray of food.

"Wow Blaine, you are officially the gayest gay to ever gay here in Blaine's Big Gay Basement."

Cooper sat down on the stairs and put down the tray to see Kurt put a dainty hand out with the other on his hip and prance around while Blaine followed him in the same manner. Their music was so loud that they hadn't heard Cooper's grand entrance and continued to run their fingers through their hair and slap their asses. Cooper had the most incredulous look on his face when Blaine looked up and noticed him.

"Coop!" he ran and paused their music. Kurt stopped dancing and his cheeks went red.

Cooper gave the boys a slow applause. "Well, I was not expecting to walk down and see that."

Blaine laughed. "Cooper, this is my Kurt, I mean my… my friend from school." Blaine gave Cooper a stern look as he saw Cooper put two and two together. "And Kurt, this is my brother, Cooper."

Kurt gave Cooper a small wave, "Hi."

"Nice to meet you man. Mom made dinner and told me to bring it to you guys. She says there's ice cream in the freezer if you want it later, but no sleepovers, so you've gotta bring your friend home by ten."

"Thanks, Coop," Blaine said hoping he'd leave.

Cooper seemed to notice the look Blaine was giving him. "Don't worry, I have absolutely no desire to stay." He got up and went back up the stairs.

Blaine grabbed the tray and brought the food and drinks over to the fort. His mom made lasagna and poured them milk to drink. He and Kurt ate up, laughing over Cooper's reaction to their dancing.

"He seems great," said Kurt in between mouthfuls.

"Yeah, he's awesome," said Blaine. "He's my best friend."

"Is he your only sibling?"

"Yeah, it's just the two of us and mom and dad. What about you?"

"My mom died when I was eleven, so it's just me and my dad. Though now of course we live with Finn and his mom Carole…and Rachel is around a lot."

"Sorry about your mom. But that seems like kind of a fun living situation, right?"

Kurt gave a dry laugh. "Hah, come over sometime and you can find out for yourself."

Blaine and Kurt spent the rest of the evening doing homework while watching Breakfast at Tiffany's (by Kurt's demand). Blaine couldn't believe how well they got along and how easy it was to be himself around the other boy. Blaine helped Kurt with his math homework over ice cream and before they knew it, it was 9:30. They went upstairs and out to the car, Kurt thanking Mrs. Anderson for everything while she hugged him goodbye. Kurt directed Blaine to his house during the drive and they pulled into his driveway fifteen minutes later.

"That was fun. Thanks Blaine, I really appreciate it," Kurt looked right into Blaine's eyes.

"Don't mention it. Just bring your a-game tomorrow. We're gonna show Karofsky who's boss."

Kurt gave him a sad smile. He unbuckled his seat belt and opened the car door. "I'll see you tomorrow." He slammed the door and Blaine watched him run to the front door and let himself in. Blaine smiled. He hadn't had that much fun in a while.

* * *

Blaine got ready for school the next day while in dreamland. He couldn't believe he had spent the entire day with Kurt. He had made Kurt go from absolutely hysterical to laughing and dancing to Beyoncé. Maybe he would be a good boyfriend someday. Blaine went downstairs and grabbed a granola bar from the kitchen.

"Blaine, sweetie. How was your date the other day?" his mom was looking up from her morning crossword.

"It wasn't a date mom, we're just friends."

"Well he was a very attractive boy," she pressed on.

"He looked like a girl," Blaine's father spoke up from behind his paper. "Spoke like one, too."

"Andrew!" snapped Blaine's mother, "don't listen to your father, he was a perfectly handsome date."

"Not a date!" Blaine yelled while running out of the house. Cooper had control of the car today so he had to hurry.

"You know if you didn't gel your hair down everyday we might actually be on time for once," Cooper said once Blaine was in the car.

"Yeah, yeah," Blaine said while turning on the radio.

"So that was Kurt. The same Kurt that made you hibernate in your cave two weeks ago?"

"The very same."

"I think he likes you."

"Don't be stupid."

"I do, I mean you two practically had an eleven-year-old girl's sleepover fantasy. Why else would a guy stay so late in a blanket fort with ice cream?"

"Um, because that sounds like the best time ever?"

"I forgot who I was talking to."

* * *

While at lunch, Blaine filled Artie, Mike, Tina and Brittany in on the events from yesterday, leaving out the fact that Karofsky had kissed Kurt. Instead Blaine made it sound like he had just shoved and threatened him. They were all upset with Karofsky but worried about Blaine's and Kurt's plans to confront him.

"No offense Blaine, but you're not the biggest dude. I don't know if you or Kurt could take him," said Tina.

"Yeah, you're smaller than me and Kurt has soft baby hands," said Brittany.

"Well it'll be two against one…and unexpected."

Blaine looked across the courtyard and saw Kurt getting up from the Cheerios table, he locked eyes with Blaine and he stood as well.

"Time to go do this," said Blaine, walking off towards the staircase. Kurt was already waiting there for him.

"Thanks again for doing this," said Kurt. He looked behind him nervously.

"Don't worry about it, just let me do the talking."

"There he is." Karofsky started down the staircase towards them. Blaine walked up to meet him.

"I got your back," Blaine added to Kurt before facing Karofsky and saying, "Excuse me," loudly.

"Hey lady boys," said Karofsky taking the pair of them in. "This your boyfriend, Kurt?"

"Kurt and I would like to talk to you about something," said Blaine, deciding not to address the boyfriend comment.

"I gotta go to class," said Karofksy, beginning to walk away.

"Kurt told me what you did," said Blaine, stopping Karofsky in his tracks. He turned around.

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"You kissed me," said Kurt.

"I don't know what you're talking about," hissed Karofsky.

"It seems like you might be a little confused, and that's totally normal. This is a very hard thing to come to terms with and you should know you're not alone," said Blaine. He was trying to approach Karofsky nicely although all he wanted to do was punch his face in.

It seemed Karofsky felt the same way too, because he grabbed Blaine by his jacket and slammed him into the fence wall. "Do not mess with me!" he yelled.

Blaine ripped himself from Karofsky's grasp. "Then don't mess with my friend," he shoved Karofsky as hard as he could. Karofsky didn't seem to expect Blaine to fight back so he stumbled backwards a few steps. "You don't want to do that little man."

"You know what Dave? I do," said Blaine, getting close up to Karofsky's face.

Karofsky went to shove Blaine again but Blaine knocked his arms out of the way. Karofsky retaliated by punching Blaine in the nose. Blaine ended up giving Karofsky a sharp blow to the head, but he had already felt a sharp pain in the center of his face.

"Stop this!" yelled Kurt; he pulled Karofsky off of Blaine.

Karofsky stopped at Kurt's words and left, holding onto his temple and Blaine was glad to see he had at least hurt him.

"Well he's not coming out anytime soon," said Blaine. "Ugh." He tasted blood running down from his nose into his mouth.

Kurt finally got a good look at Blaine. "Oh god, Blaine I think your nose is broken."

"Yeah I thought I heard something crack," said Blaine.

"Come on," Kurt grabbed Blaine's hand. "I'm taking you to see the nurse."

* * *

Blaine was sitting down in the nurse's office, with two wads of cotton stuffed in his nostrils, sopping up the blood. He had fractured his nose but it didn't need to be reset, so he had to just wait it out. He could see purple bruising forming under his left eye. How attractive.

"You didn't have to do that you know," said Kurt from the chair lower on the ground.

"Of course I did. You're my friend."

Kurt smiled. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. The pain medication is starting to kick in," said Blaine. "Does this make me look more rugged and tough though?"

Kurt laughed. "Maybe once you get the cotton out of your nose." He drew his knees up to his chest and sighed.

"What's going on? Why are you so upset?" asked Blaine.

Kurt sighed. "Because, up until yesterday I had never been kissed. Or at least, when it counted."

"Oh," said Blaine.

"But," said Kurt whose lips were turning upwards again, "up until today I've never had anyone get in a fight for me."

Blaine grinned.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Five: Furt**

It was Thursday evening and Blaine was having dinner with his family. His mother insisted that between everyone's schedules it was the one occasion that the family could spend quality time together (besides for the holidays) so it was mandatory.

"I don't understand how a wedding can be planned in such short notice," Blaine's mother was saying, "it took an entire year just to get the reservations at the venue your father and I booked."

"Well, they're not doing anything too fancy, and Kurt's been planning weddings since he was two years old so he has a lot organized already."

"Hmph," said Blaine's father before putting more potatoes into his mouth.

Blaine's mother ignored him. "Well it's a good thing you're helping him. Weddings are very difficult to organize, even with the proper amount of time to plan."

At the beginning of the week, Kurt and Finn had announced to the Glee Club that their parents were getting married. Kurt, who was in charge of planning had asked the New Directions to act as the wedding band. While Kurt had already picked the venue, clothing, music, and décor, he needed Blaine's help going to the mall and registering under the Hummel-Hudson name. He had also invited Blaine to come over to his house for the family's Friday night dinner since Finn always invited Rachel and he was tired of being a fifth wheel.

"You two spend a lot of time together. How come I don't see more of Brittany and Tina?" asked Blaine's father.

"Because they both have boyfriends," answered Blaine. He wished his father would stop fighting the fact that Blaine was gay. Blaine's father equally pushed the family dinners; he hoped that if Blaine spent enough time around his older brother straight might rub off on him.

"They're also way out of your league," said Cooper who had met the Brainiac members a few times when picking Blaine up from after school meetings.

"Shut up," said Blaine.

"Kurt's not though. You gonna propose to him with all of this wedding talk?"

"No. We're just friends…and we couldn't really do that anyway."

"So are you getting a ride tomorrow? I was going to Jason's tomorrow night," said Cooper. He hadn't meant to touch on such a sensitive subject for Blaine. He knew how much Blaine wanted to get married someday.

"Yeah, Kurt's driving, and I can probably get a ride back from Rachel."

"Oh, who's Rachel?" asked Blaine's dad.

"Finn's girlfriend," said Blaine, stabbing at his chicken.

"Oh, I like him. When are you having the guys around again?"

Blaine had hosted the HALO-thon at his house last Friday when Artie's became unavailable since his mom caught the flu and didn't want any guests at the house. Mike, Finn, Puck and Sam had spent the night, playing video games until 5 AM. Mr. Anderson was a perfect host about these situations. It was when Blaine and Kurt spent weekends watching musicals, choreographing pop singles, and when Kurt played What Not to Wear in Blaine's closet did he become scarce, only cropping up to remind Kurt that he couldn't stay the night.

"I don't know. The wedding stuff is keeping us busy, and then there's sectionals in two weeks."

"Oh, your father and I have already got tickets! We're going to meet up with some of the Dalton parents there, but we'd love to meet the Hummel-Hudsons!"

Cooper laughed and Blaine kicked him under the table.

* * *

Friday couldn't end any sooner. Blaine's Spanish class was taking forever, but he felt compelled to pay attention because Mr. Schuster was his teacher, and liked to call on him. The bell rang and Blaine zipped out of there, evading Finn, Mike, Puck, Brittany and Santana. He was getting tired of being "oohed" at whenever he mentioned he was hanging out with Kurt. Everyone knew about Blaine's crush and were all convinced that Kurt liked him back. Blaine didn't have the courage to ask Kurt out again after his disastrous first attempt. He liked having a gay friend, too. They had fun together and he could talk about things with Kurt that he couldn't with the guys or with Brittany and Tina.

"Ready to go?" Kurt strolled up to Blaine's locker, dressed immaculately in his Cheerios uniform under his pea coat and scarf. Blaine threw his jacket around his shoulders.

"All set."

The boys walked to the parking lot and to Kurt's car. It was smaller then Blaine's, but just as nice. They listened to a musical playlist Kurt had made, highly favoring the Wicked soundtrack. Once at the North Hills Mall, Blaine followed Kurt into the nicer department stores. Blaine waited for Kurt while he sorted out the registry and picked up the scanner. They spent a good three hours picking out flatware, china, drapery, area rugs and kitchen appliances. Blaine mostly listened as Kurt prattled on about wedding details, and would humor him when he'd gasp, freezing on the spot and think of releasing live doves, giving all of the guests pennies to throw into a fountain, and bringing the Warblers to the reception. Kurt was very picky with the gifts he was scanning, as the items would all be in his house, he wanted them to be chic and well made. Blaine felt that Kurt would have been able to do this by himself, but he was glad he was invited. It meant that Kurt liked his company.

"And, that'll do," said Kurt much later.

"Are we done?" asked Blaine. He had stopped paying attention to Kurt's description of Carole's dress twenty minutes ago.

"Yes, and we'll be lucky if half of our guests can afford these, excuse me." Kurt left to return the scanner. They walked around the mall for a bit and stopped at the food court so Blaine could get a soft pretzel. He offered a bite to Kurt and took the opportunity to bring up their impending evening.

"So I finally get to see a famous Friday night dinner," said Blaine, accepting his pretzel back from Kurt while watching him dust some salt off of his lips.

"Yes, and I apologize in advance," said Kurt. "The evening will consist of Finn and my dad talking about sports, so he'll love you. Rachel will fill in any empty silence about the solos she'd like to sing if Mr. Schuster would let her. Then it's movie time. Rachel and Finn will make out through it, my dad will fall asleep, Carole will cry, and I will live update on Twitter about how awful the movie is unless it's my pick."

"You make it sound so fantastic. I sincerely appreciate the invite," Blaine teased.

"I'm just warning you. Though we might have a good movie tonight, Carole usually picks decent chick flicks."

"Are you insinuating because I'm gay I like to watch Dear John and In Her Shoes?"

"I'm just saying-"

"I'm just kidding. I'll watch anything with Channing Tatum."

"Oh thank god," laughed Kurt.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Kurt parked his car on the street and he and Blaine made their way into his house. Blaine hadn't been inside before. It was very cozy, and looked half lived in, half a work in progress. He could tell the house was a mesh of two families; there were double sets of salt and pepper shakers, tea kettles and hand towels, and a few unpacked boxes lined the walls.

"Blaine!" Finn crashed into him and shook his hand. "It's about time, I was playing Mario Kart with Rachel but she's miserable competition, get in here." Finn dragged Blaine into the living room against Kurt's protests.

"Hi boys!" said Rachel. She was snuggled on the couch, and seemed relieved to give her controller to Blaine. She patted the spot on the couch next to her for Kurt to take. Blaine settled on the floor, leaning against the couch and Finn plopped back into his armchair. They played until Carole called out that it was dinnertime, only pausing for Blaine to properly greet Mr. Hummel and Mrs. Hudson.

The six of them settled around the table, slightly cramped. Carole dished food onto their plates and they dug in, Finn shoveling food into his mouth at an alarming rate. Rachel pushed around the chicken on her plate, trying to make it look like she ate some. Burt always forgot that she was a vegetarian.

"So you two meet in Glee Club?" asked Burt.

"Yes," said Blaine.

"Not Cheerios?"

"No, Blaine didn't try out for that team," said Kurt.

"What team did you try out for?"

"Football, but I didn't make it," answered Blaine, meeting eyes with Finn.

"Well Finn you gotta practice with him this summer!" said Burt, riveted with excitement. The three talked sports for a while as Kurt had predicted.

Rachel, Kurt and Carole began to talk about the wedding. At one point, Rachel's scream of excitement stopped both conversations.

"Can we go try them on?"

"Of course!" said Carole.

Kurt and Rachel ran from the table and upstairs without explanation. The men looked to Carole, confused.

"The bridesmaids dresses and suits were delivered yesterday. I think we're getting a fashion show," she explained.

"They're changing in the same room, aren't they?" asked Finn.

Burt sighed and Finn scowled. "I bet he's gonna see more than I ever have," he mumbled under his breath.

Blaine laughed. He was telling Carole about being on the Academic Decathlon Team when Rachel and Kurt waltzed downstairs. Rachel was wearing a red, short dress and Kurt was in black tux.

"Wow," Blaine breathed. "You look amazing," he met eyes with Kurt, and then added, "Rachel," and glanced at her instead.

"You look beautiful," said Finn. He stood up and went to kiss her.

"See dad? Nothing over the top. I kept my word," said Kurt, walking up to his father so he could see the tuxedo's details.

"You look good Kurt. Just don't look better then me."

Carole gushed over the two for a few minutes more and then they both left to change again. Blaine thought Kurt looked sexy; the tux had fit him perfectly. He looked like he was going to walk on the red carpet at the Tony Awards. Blaine wished he had tried on his tux with them. He looked down at his plate to hide the blush that was creeping up his neck. Once Kurt and Rachel came back downstairs she helped Burt and Finn clear the table while Carole, Kurt, and Blaine set up in the living room for the movie portion of the evening. Carole had picked out Twilight, and the announcement brought groans from everyone but Rachel and Kurt. Once Finn had made three bowls of popcorn they started the movie. Rachel and Carole shushed Kurt and Burt for making commentary during the first hour. Halfway through, Burt fell asleep and Rachel and Finn were locked in an embrace.

"Ew," said Kurt, turning back towards the screen from the couple making out. "What did I tell you?" he added to Blaine.

Blaine laughed. "If I were in Finn's position I'd make out instead of watching this crap, too."

Kurt raised his eyebrows at Blaine.

"Well you know, not with Rachel, but with…someone."

Near the end of the movie, Carole was in tears and Kurt had fallen asleep and was leaning on Blaine's shoulder. Blaine watched his chest rise and fall. Kurt's hair was tickling his neck. Even though Twilight was one of the worst movies Blaine had ever seen, he was disappointed when it ended. Carole switched on the lights and Rachel and Finn broke apart, adjusting themselves and trying to look innocent. Burt woke up and so did Kurt. He looked up at Blaine, confused and squinting his eyes.

"Good morning," said Blaine.

"Oh, shit I'm sorry," said Kurt. He fixed his hair. "Oh well, I've seen that movie ten times already."

"I'm judging you," said Blaine.

"Alright, we're heading up to bed," said Burt. "Nice meeting you Blaine, we'll see you around soon," he shook his hand and then said goodnight to Rachel and accepted her hug. He and Carole went upstairs.

"What do you say bro? More gaming?" asked Finn.

"No! If you start playing games again I am leaving, and I'm Blaine's ride home," said Rachel.

"Fine, fine, another time," said Finn.

"It's late anyway and I'm going to get my nails done with my dads in the morning," said Rachel. "I'm going to head out, Blaine is that okay?"

"Yeah, I think Kurt's tired anyway," said Blaine.

Kurt went to get their jackets and Blaine was left standing awkwardly while Rachel and Finn made a very long, nonverbal goodbye. He was glad when Kurt returned.

"Oh, thanks," said Blaine. Kurt held out his coat for him while Blaine snaked both his arms in.

"Thanks for coming tonight, maybe I could convince you to come again?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah, definitely." Blaine and Kurt stood there, looking at each other while Finn and Rachel continued to suck each other's faces off.

"Um," started Blaine.

"Okay, that's enough!" shouted Kurt. Rachel and Finn broke apart.

She smiled, "I love you."

"I love you too," said Finn. She kissed him again.

"Goodnight."

Rachel and Blaine left, and went out to her car. She turned her music off once Blaine sat down.

"So you and Kurt, huh?"

Oh, she was a talker. Figured. Blaine sighed.

"Are you going to ask him out?"

"I already did, and he turned me down."

"What?"

"Watch it, watch it!" Blaine pointed at the road, Rachel had swerved severely and they were headed towards the opposing lane of traffic. She steadied herself.

"When was this?"

"A few weeks ago," Blaine mumbled, "after our duet performances."

"Well you should try again! I think he likes you."

"That's what everyone keeps saying but I'm not convinced. I don't want to embarrass myself again. If he likes me, he could come to me, you know."

"But Kurt is so romantic, he'd want to be wooed."

"What and I can't be serenaded or bought dinner?"

Rachel laughed. "I just don't see Kurt doing the asking. You should try again at sectionals."

Blaine shrugged. He felt that no meant no, but then again, they didn't really know each other at all when Blaine first asked Kurt out and they had come a long way since then.

* * *

Blaine pulled into a parking spot at the back of the church. He saw Quinn getting out of her car and walking towards the building, already in her bridesmaid dress. Blaine checked his hair in the mirror and his made his way into the lobby. Puck and Sam were standing around with Quinn and Tina. Mercedes and Santana were fixing their hair in a nearby mirror and Artie and Mike were talking with Rachel. Brittany walked in the double doors shortly after with Kurt and Finn in her wake.

"Alright, everyone have their aisle partner?" Kurt asked after clapping to get their attention. "Right, let's get in our places."

The music started playing on the other side of the chapel doors. Rachel and Finn took their cue, and headed towards the aisle. Blaine could hear them beginning to sing the opening to 'Marry You'. Sam and Quinn danced their way to the front of the church next, with Kurt and Mercedes. Brittany wheeled in Artie, and Mike and Tina were the last couple, as Blaine, Santana and Puck came in as a trio. Blaine sang some background chorus while skipping down the aisle, following Mike's choreography that he'd learned in glee club earlier that week. Once they had reached the front of the church Blaine took his spot with the other boys. He continued singing and smiled when Burt danced down the aisle. Kurt was already wiping tears from his eyes.

The ceremony was beautiful. Carole was glowing and Burt couldn't stop smiling. Blaine's eyes watered when they read their own written vows to each other. They exchanged rings and kissed. Kurt was crying freely when Carole and Burt walked back down the aisle. The music signaled for the guests to head down to the reception.

Blaine walked into the reception hall and was absolutely floored. There were at least thirty tables, draped in white cloth trimmed with red. Each had a candle already lit in the center. There was a dance floor, stage for the musicians, and open bar. Blaine saw a chocolate fountain with platters of finger food and flutes of champagne. Kurt had truly outdone himself.

Mr. Schuster opened up with the first performance. He began to sing 'Sway' and ladies dropped off their purses and took off their heels before running to the dance floor, dragging their boyfriends to tango. Kurt, Burt, Carole and Finn were sitting at the head table. Blaine found his seat at the New Directions table where Santana, Puck, Mercedes, and Rachel were sitting. Santana was looking at Brittany and Artie on the dance floor. Brittany was sitting in Artie's lap with her hands in the air while he spun in circles. Mike and Tina were making a path for themselves in the crowd and Quinn and Sam, who had become an official couple previously that week, were swaying mindlessly, too busy staring at the other to care about dancing.

Santana stood up and hovered in front of Puck. "Let's go. I look hot, you look hot. I'm bored."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Puck said, standing up. He followed her out of the reception hall. Mercedes was twisting a napkin in her lap and Rachel was smiling at Finn who had gotten up from the table was now dancing with his mom.

Blaine got out of his seat and walked over to the two girls. "Would you beautiful ladies like to dance?"

"That would be delightful," said Mercedes standing up.

"Oh yes, gentle sir," Rachel laughed.

Blaine took both of their arms and led them towards the others on the dance floor. Kurt looked up from his conversation with his father and catcalled at the three. Blaine took turns spinning and dipping the girls and let them lead a few times. He, Rachel and Mercedes applauded loudly when Mr. Schuster's song ended. Finn grabbed the microphone from Mr. Schuster and the guests took their seats. Once everyone had settled he stood in the center of the dance floor nervously.

"Hi. Uh, thank you. Best man. Right, uh. Well I wanna propose a toast to my mom who is so awesome. I mean somehow without even one in the house you taught me what it means to be a man. In glee club whenever the two of us got together we got a nickname. Rachel and I are Finchel, Rachel and Puck were Puckleberry, and today a new union was formed. Furt." Finn motioned towards Kurt, who looked surprised.

"You and me man, we're brothers from another mother. And quite frankly no one has showed me as much as you what it means to be a man. And over the past few weeks some stuff's gone down and I haven't manned up like I should have." Finn was referring to the bullying from Karofsky that Kurt had been enduring. Sam, Mike, and Artie had gone to confront him without Blaine (who didn't want to break his nose again), Puck (who was on parole), and Finn. Sam had a black eye to show from it.

"From now on, no matter what it costs me, I got your back. Kay?" Finn continued, "Even if it meets getting a slushie in the face every now and then. You put this entire wedding by yourself, Kurt. So as a thank you I had the Glee club put together a little number in your honor. And you're gonna dance it with me dude."

Kurt shook his head no, embarrassed and Blaine recognized his cue to stand up and join Finn on the dance floor with the other guys. Puck had come back and was quickly buttoning his shirt back up.

Finn began to sing, "_OH, HER EYES, HER EYES MAKE THE STARS LOOK LIKE THEY'RE NOT SHINING. HER HAIR HER HAIR LOOKS PERFECTLY WITHOUT HER TRYING. SHE'S SO BEAUTIFUL AND I TELL HER EVERYDAY."_

Finn had dedicated Bruno Mars' 'Just the Way You Are' to sing to Kurt, and had asked the New Directions members to help him out. Blaine danced in between Sam and Mike and watched as Kurt's face shown red from his seat. He looked slightly mortified, but pleased. Blaine knew that Kurt had never had a boyfriend before, so being sung to must have meant a lot to him. He tried to catch Kurt's eyes but they were fixated on Finn. Soon the ladies joined and everyone coupled off. Finn and Kurt danced together and Blaine watched them, smiling broadly while swaying with Rachel and Mercedes. Carole and Burt joined in and Kurt and Finn each danced with his parent for a bit. Finn continued to sing to Kurt and everyone applauded when the song ended, including Kurt whose eyes were brimming with tears. Rachel took the stage after, performing the first of her many solos of the night. Blaine took a breather with Artie and Brittany and watched Kurt dance with Mercedes from his seat. They were drinking champagne while occasionally looking over their shoulders but no one noticed, or cared. Sam and Quinn began a duet and Mercedes and Kurt joined their table.

"So? What do you think?" asked Kurt. He plucked the glass out of Blaine's hand and drained the rest of his champagne.

"This is amazing, Kurt. The whole wedding is gorgeous. I don't even feel like we're in a church right now," said Blaine.

"Yes, well that was the general idea." Kurt took another glass of champagne from a nearby table.

"I can't wait for my own wedding," said Brittany. "Lord Tubbington is going to be the flower cat."

"Well mine is going to be fabulous because Kurt here is going to plan it," said Mercedes grabbing his arm.

Santana called Brittany over to the stage and they took over for Quinn and Sam. They began to sing Regina Spektor's 'Us'. A few people walked off the dance floor to cool off, and Blaine saw a few girls drag guys onto the floor for the slow number.

"Oh, I love this song!" said Blaine.

"Let's dance, then," said Kurt. He rose from his seat and put his hand out, smiling. Blaine took it and felt his heart start to beat faster. Once on the floor Kurt insisted that Blaine lead, and Blaine put his sweaty hand on Kurt's waist while Kurt rested his arm around Blaine's neck. Blaine had nowhere else to look but at Kurt and he felt so vulnerable. His expression, his pulse, his trembling hands and dry mouth were betraying him. Kurt had to notice; he had to see the effect that he had on Blaine because he had nowhere else to stare either.

"Someday we'll be able to do this you know," said Kurt.

"What?" said Blaine, caught off guard.

"Get married. Ohio may be the very last state to legalize it, but it will happen."

"Oh," said Blaine. "This wedding is brilliant Kurt. You're brilliant. You deserve to get married."

Kurt smiled and then rested his head on Blaine's shoulder. Blaine straightened up. He wished he were taller. He wanted Kurt to be comfortable, not bent awkwardly. Kurt sighed. "I'm so glad you're my friend, Blaine."

"Me too," said Blaine. Friends. They were friends. Even with champagne in their systems and love in the air, while slow dancing at a wedding, Kurt and Blaine were just friends. Blaine closed his eyes and continued to guide Kurt on the dance floor. His nerves were replaced with disappointment so he focused on Brittany and Santana's lyrics instead of the beautiful boy leaning into him. Soon the couples around them broke apart and Blaine opened his eyes. Kurt lifted his head off of Blaine's shoulders.

"My turn to sing, but save another dance for me. You're a much better partner than Mercedes." Kurt winked at Blaine and went to relieve Brittany of the microphone.

The musicians began to play and Blaine recognized the tune immediately. Kurt was singing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. Blaine swallowed hard and stayed rooted on the spot, and while other couples brushed by him, he stared at Kurt. He wanted to hold Kurt's hand. Too bad Kurt would only hold Blaine's hand to drag him to a sale at J. Crew, or to get his attention when Neil Patrick Harris came on television. Blaine watched Kurt and accepted his fate. They were friends because Kurt needed another gay boy to talk to and Blaine was the only one available.

"_OH PLEASE, SAY TO ME YOU'LL LET ME BE YOUR MAN. AND PLEASE, SAY TO ME YOU'LL LET ME HOLD YOUR HAND"_

Blaine He walked back to the New Directions table, trying to ignore Kurt's perfect voice and buzz of champagne telling him that if he professed his feelings to Kurt on stage he would reciprocate. He slumped in his seat and prepared himself for his personal torture of having to dance another slow, romantic song with a boy could sleep on his shoulder, invite him to dinner, dance with him at a wedding, but would never want to hold his hand.

* * *

**Chapter Six: Special Education**

It was the week of sectionals for McKinley High School's New Directions. Mr. Schuster had created a domino effect of drama during the first rehearsal of the week when he told Rachel that she would not be singing any solos for the competition. Instead, he had decided to highlight Quinn, Sam, Santana, Brittany and Mike. Blaine was happy for the other members but disappointed since this would be his first competition performance in over a year that he wouldn't have a solo. Since then, Rachel had found out that Finn had lied about not losing his virginity since he had slept with Santana the previous year. Meanwhile Tina and Artie were convinced that Mike and Brittany, who were spending so much time together choreographing for 'Valerie', were having an affair. Kurt was his only sane friend at the moment since Finn was stressing about Rachel, Sam was prepping for his first solo, and Puck was pining over Lauren Zizes, glee club's newest, and largest member.

Somehow the New Directions made it to sectionals. Blaine had been staring at Kurt who was looking extremely attractive in the maroon dress shirt and black pants that all of the boys were wearing.

"Sit with me please?" asked Kurt while everyone was filing into the auditorium to watch their competitors perform.

"Sure," Blaine said, making sure to sit as far away from the couple drama as possible.

The Hipsters were performing first and Blaine and Kurt exchanged strained smiles throughout their song 'The Living Years'.

"I think we'll be okay," whispered Kurt into Blaine's ear.

"I don't know, for a bunch of old folks they're pretty good," Blaine whispered back. "But maybe they'll die before they give out awards so we'll win by default."

Kurt clapped his hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter. "Well there's still the Warblers."

Blaine waved his hand. "They can't win without me."

"Someone's modest," teased Kurt. "Our outfits are much better though."

Kurt and Blaine applauded politely while the Hipsters made their way offstage. Mr. Schu tapped them on the shoulders and told them to be respectful of the other performers while the Warblers took center stage. They were better than Blaine expected. The boy that had pulled Blaine into the Uptown Girl performance was singing lead for both of their songs, 'Hey Soul Sister' and 'The One That Got Away'.

"I can't believe they're singing Pink without you," said Kurt. "Who's the boy singing lead?"

"I don't know. He must have transferred this year," answered Blaine.

Mr. Shuster motioned for New Directions to go to the green room. They would be performing after a short break. Everyone broke out into separate arguments once Mr. Schuster left to sit in his seat, but apparently didn't wait long enough. He heard their shouting and returned, telling the club to get their act together. Blaine saw Brittany and Artie make up and smiled; at least that was one problem solved. The lights flickered and the glee club headed towards the stage's edges. The lead singer of the Warblers was waiting there.

"Blaine Anderson?"

Blaine stopped walking and Kurt paused as well. "Yeah?"

"I didn't get to introduce myself when you visited a few weeks ago. I'm Sebastian Smythe. Big fan."

"Oh, are you a freshman?" asked Blaine, shaking his hand.

"Do I look like a freshman?"

Blaine opened his mouth to speak but didn't know what to say.

"You guys were great," gushed Kurt.

"Thanks," said Sebastian, still looking at Blaine, "but I'm told Blaine's shoes are pretty big to fill. I'll see you on stage." Sebastian walked away from Blaine and Kurt, smirking.

"Oh god, he's so hot," said Kurt the second he left.

"Blaine! Kurt!" Puck called the two over to get into position. The lights dimmed and the music started. Quinn and Sam began their performance of '(I've Had) The Time of My Life'. When they reached the second chorus the curtain rose and the stage lighting immediately blinded Blaine. Even though he was just dancing around in the background he still felt the energy of a performance coursing through him. Sebastian and Kurt were no longer important, and he could see the effect of an audience on all of the New Directions members. Santana, Brittany and Mike truly shined, enjoying their first time taking center stage in 'Valerie'. The applause was deafening and Blaine was pleased when he noticed the crowd was standing. He saw Sebastian and the Warblers shouting and waving to Blaine and he waved back, not worrying about professionalism. He skipped off stage, heart beating and brushed the sweat from his forehead with his arm. Everyone was in higher spirits when they returned to the green room.

The New Directions were called back onstage with the Warblers and Hipsters for the award ceremony. The Hipsters came in third place, and the New Directions and Warblers tied for first. Sebastian found Blaine while walking off stage.

"This might be an odd request since we're competing against each other for regionals, but I was thinking we could talk sometime. You know, Warbler to Warbler. Here's my number." Sebastian slid his hand into Blaine's back pocket, dropping a slip of paper there. "Call me."

Blaine blinked. "Yeah, yeah um, sure thing."

"By the way," Sebastian added, very close to Blaine's face now, "this whole innocent school boy thing, very hot."

Blaine didn't know how to respond. Sebastian gave him another smirk and caught up with the other Warblers. Blaine felt someone grab onto his arm.

"What. Just. Happened?" asked Kurt.

"I…I think Sebastian just asked me out."

* * *

"Blaine honey, you were wonderful!" Blaine accepted his mother's hug and then his father's handshake.

"Good job, son. Is it less glamorous in the back of the stage?" said Mr. Anderson, laughing.

"Oh Andrew he'll get his turn, soon. He's only a sophomore. I imagine they do things differently at McKinley."

Blaine was glad that his parents had come to see him perform but wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. He was sure they would embarrass him in front of Kurt's parents or worse Sebastian would approach him again.

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Anderson," said Kurt. He had just come up behind Blaine and also accepted Mrs. Anderson's hug.

"Kurt sweetie, you were all so fantastic on stage. Are we finally going to meet your parents?" asked Blaine's mother.

"Yes of course. Dad over here!" Kurt waved at his father who was with Carole and Finn. He signaled that he saw Kurt and all three made their way over.

"Oh congratulations! We heard about your wedding!" said Mrs. Anderson, shaking the Hummel-Hudsons' hands.

"Thank you, yes we just got back from our honeymoon yesterday. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Carole and this is my husband, Burt."

"And this must be Finn, right?" asked Mr. Anderson.

"Yeah, nice to meet you sir," said Finn taking Mr. Anderson's hand.

"I'm told that this young man is going to teach Blaine to play football," said Mr. Anderson to Burt.

"Oh yeah, I figure if Kurt can get on the team, anyone can," laughed Burt.

"Kurt was on the team, eh? I never heard about that!"

"Well you probably heard 'Single Ladies' in the basement…" said Blaine under his breath. Finn and Kurt laughed.

"What's that now?" asked Blaine's father.

"Nothing, dad."

"Andrea! I remembered that French restaurant I wanted to give you the name of, it was Rue de- Oh I'm sorry I don't want to interrupt," said a very pretty woman who had joined their conversation.

"Oh, Ellie, don't worry about it," said Mrs. Anderson. "This is Ellie Smythe, she's one of the Warbler's mothers."

Oh god, no. Blaine looked around the auditorium to see if he could locate Sebastian while all of the adults greeted Ellie.

"Seb was just talking about Blaine the other day. He said that he met him at Dalton but I knew that he had transferred, Nick's mother, Deborah told me- Seb what was it that you said?" said Ellie Smythe.

Sebastian strutted up from nowhere and put his arm around Blaine's shoulders and Blaine tried his best to turn his jump of surprise into a natural looking twitch.

"I said that Blaine would be impossible to beat, and it proved true since we tied. I guess this means we'll be seeing each other at Regionals then," said Sebastian, looking at Blaine.

"Mmmhm, did you say Nick was here Mrs. Smythe? Gosh, I haven't seen him in ages; do you want to meet him, Kurt? Finn?" asked Blaine.

"Blaine honey don't be rude, we're having a conversation," said Mrs. Anderson.

"Yeah, learn some manners from Sebastian here. He knows how to be a friendly competitor," said Mr. Anderson.

Sebastian smiled and removed his arm from Blaine's shoulders, letting it ghost across the back of Blaine's thighs on the way down.

"Yeah, I was telling Blaine that we should meet up. Maybe we could help each other out for Regionals."

"That's a great idea," said Burt. "I don't suppose any of you could help Finn's dance moves? You all looked pretty together on stage."

"I might be a lost cause," said Finn.

"I was hoping it'd be a Warbler to Warbler meeting, actually," said Sebastian.

"Well that makes sense," said Mr. Anderson. "Blaine you should give Sebastian your number so he can contact you."

"Yeah, but I could just as easily Facebook you so-"

"Now that's the problem with kids today, never want to talk in person, always over the Internet," began Mr. Anderson.

"I know, I'll tell you when I was their age friendships just meant more. We couldn't hide behind profiles or anything like that," said Burt.

"Fine," said Blaine. He let Sebastian copy his number into his phone, regretting it as it was happening. Kurt was awfully quiet; Blaine wished he'd speak up and help him out.

"You could have my number too," said Kurt. "I had some excellent ideas for Regionals and I wouldn't want our teams to do the same thing."

Not like that.

"I'll get it from Blaine," said Sebastian, sliding his phone back into his pocket.

"It was great to finally meet you," said Carole. The parents were shaking hands again and sharing pleasantries. Blaine couldn't wait to get out of there. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and saw that he had a text from a new number.

(9:48)

Don't give my number to your friend. I only want to spend time with you.

Blaine looked at Sebastian, trying to look serious. Sebastian winked at him.

"Bye Blaine, I'll see you soon."

"Bye Sebastian!" yelled Kurt.

"Kurt, you're drooling," said Finn, smacking the back of his head.

"Finn, no!" Kurt ran his fingers through his hair, putting it back in place. "What's his number? Blaine don't ignore me! Where are you going?"

* * *

On Saturday, Blaine was sitting on Brittany's bed with an extremely overweight cat on his lap that was shedding hair all over his clothes. Finn was sitting next to Blaine looking even more uncomfortable than Blaine felt; Finn was allergic to cat hair and kept blinking, determined not to look like he was crying.

"I can't believe Brit remembered that I agreed to this. I don't even remember her asking me," said Finn.

Blaine and Finn had been coerced into staring on Brittany's web show Fondue for Two. She had cornered them after the sectionals win (well, tie) and after a very graphic threat from Santana involving their balls and Brittany's scalding fondue should they refuse, the two boys agreed to go on her show right away.

"Blaine, be careful! Lord Tubbington doesn't like corduroy pants. It gives him a rash and the stress will make him take up smoking again," said Brittany coming into her bedroom carrying a tray of hot cheese.

"Sorry he just made himself at home."

Brittany put the tray on her bed in between the boys and picked up her cat from Blaine's lap.

"I'm glad you guys are on my show tonight, we have a lot of gossip to discuss."

"This is a gossip show? I thought we were discussing alien abductions," said Finn.

"That's my other show, So You Think You've Been Probed. You need to fill out a form for that, I'll give it to you when we're done. Okay, let's begin!" Brittany turned on her web camera while Finn began to eat some cheese.

"Blaine, it must be very difficult for you to go from being the star of your old school's hot guy glee club to standing in the back of ours." Brittany stared at Blaine, waiting for a response.

"That wasn't a question," said Blaine.

"I just need our viewers to know what happened. How are you dealing with being unpopular?"

"I…I wouldn't call myself unpopular," started Blaine.

"But you are, so…how are you dealing with it?"

Blaine exhaled and rolled his eyes. "Just getting by, day to day. You know."

"Have you gone to rehab yet for your addiction to bow-ties?"

"I don't think I require any medical attention for that, actually."

"Well you're wrong. You should see a doctor right away." Brittany went to grab some cheese so Lord Tubbington hopped off of her lap and settled onto Finn's instead.

"Ugh, no," Finn started rubbing his eyes.

"Moving on," said Brittany. "Finn obviously you're still very upset about your scandalous break with Rachel Berry. But you should know that you're in a safe place so you can let your tears fall freely. Lord Tubbington won't judge you."

"I'm not crying," said Finn. "I'm allergic to cats."

"That's bullying, and I will not allow that kind of talk," said Brittany, reaching across the bed to take Lord Tubbington back from Finn. "Are you going to start to date Quinn now that you're single?"

"No, she's dating Sam. I think I just need to focus on myself for a while. Listen can we not talk about this? I don't really feel comfortable sharing this information to, you know, everybody."

"The public has a right to know. Just like they should know that Blaine has become spy for the Warblers."

"What? I'm not spying!"

"My sources tell me otherwise."

"And what are your sources saying?"

"You're dating a boy from Dalton, who is using you to get crucial information to sabotage the New Directions," said Brittany.

"Dude is that true?" asked Finn.

"No! No! What? No. I haven't even gone on a date with him; he just gave me his number, that's all. And even if I were to date him I wouldn't give him New Directions information."

"Well, we'll just have to wait and find out. Tune in next time for Fondue for Two where we'll be interviewing Mr. Schuster's son, Jesse St. James." Brittany smiled and Finn waved at the camera before she turned it off.

"Are you seriously going to upload that? You made Finn and I look terrible," said Blaine.

"If you were worried about what you looked like you would dress like a grandpa, Blaine. Sorry, but as a newscaster I'm sworn to speak the truth."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Seven: A Very Glee Christmas**

After school on Monday, Blaine was waiting in line to see Santa Clause.

"This is so stupid," Kurt said. "I could be catching up on Desperate Housewives right now."

Earlier that day during rehearsal, Artie had explained to the New Directions that Brittany still believed in Santa Clause. In order to preserve her innocence, he had convinced everyone to go to the North Hills mall and sit on Santa's lap in support of Brittany's ability to see the magic in everything or something like that.

"Oh come on, this is cute," said Blaine. He loved the feel of the holidays. His phone buzzed in his pocket; he had a new text from Sebastian.

"Sebastian?" asked Kurt. "What does he want now?"

"Oh, wow," said Blaine. "He invited me to go to Scandals this week."

"What?" Kurt snatched Blaine's phone from his hands and scanned his inbox. "You're not twenty-one though!"

"He says he has fake I.D.'s," said Blaine moving up in line. Mercedes, Santana and Quinn had already taken their turn in Santa's lap.

"No, no absolutely not. I do not support this at all," said Kurt. "Sebastian is bad news. You should at least hang out with him one on one before going to a club and drinking."

"Well luckily we're meeting for coffee after this."

"No wonder you're in such a good mood," said Kurt, nudging Blaine with his shoulder while still scrolling through Blaine's phone.

"Go Blaine, go Blaine go!" said Brittany. Blaine walked up to a bored looking Santa and sat on his lap. It was warm and creepy as Quinn predicted but he made sure to flash Brittany a smile before turning back to Santa.

"Ho ho ho, and what is your name?"

"Blaine. Listen Santa; I would really like to get out of the friend zone by Valentine's Day. Can you do that?"

Santa looked confused. "I could get you some more hair gel since you probably finished your entire bottle this morning. Why don't you ask one of my elves to give you Cupid's card? Merry Christmas Blaine!"

Blaine shook his head and walked over to where the other girls, Puck, Sam and Mike were waiting. He watched Kurt ask for a dozen Alexander McQueen sweaters and a new pair of boots and smiled. Kurt hopped off Santa's lap and pranced over to where Blaine stood.

"Blaine, you and Sebastian have been texting nonstop since sectionals," said Kurt handing Blaine back his phone. "And I don't think he wants to just talk regionals when you meet."

"Way to go through my phone," said Blaine, pocketing it.

Kurt ignored him. "Be careful. And let me know if you need a designated driver for Scandals, okay?"

Blaine nodded. The idea of going to Scandals was intimidating; he'd never gone to a gay bar before, or any bar for that matter. But Sebastian was good looking and interested in Blaine… and available. He was a nice distraction from pining over Kurt anyway. At least getting coffee was harmless, right?

* * *

"How'd it go? How'd it go? How'd it go?"

Blaine rolled his eyes but couldn't force a smile from forming. He had just opened his front door to a very impatient Kurt, demanding to know about Blaine and Sebastian's coffee date.

"Here, I'll take your coat," Blaine offered.

"Don't change the subject!" Kurt shrugged off his winter coat and threw it at Blaine and then started unlacing his boots. It had started to snow outside and he had tracked some sludge into the house. Blaine could tell he had come directly from Cheerios because he was still in his uniform and his hair was disheveled, having dried strangely around his sweatband. Kurt followed Blaine to the hall closet while he hung up Kurt's coat and into the living room, whining about being left hanging and threatening to get Cooper.

"Kurt!" Blaine spun around and Kurt stopped talking. "If you shut up for like, a second maybe I'll tell you."

Kurt sat down immediately on Blaine's couch and crossed his legs. He drew his fingers over his lips, signaling that they were zipped.

"Thank you," said Blaine. "It was…really nice actually. Sebastian was charming. A little forward, but charming."

Kurt continued to stare at Blaine. Apparently he wasn't delivering enough details.

"He paid for me? Let's see, he's lived in Europe and gone to a dozen schools. He plays sports and-"

"Do you like him? Are you going to see him again? Are you going to Scandals? Did you kiss? Did you do more than kiss? If you did Blaine Anderson I swear to god I'm going to-"

"I don't know!" Blaine stood up and threw his hands in the air. "I had a good time, yes I'm going to see him again because I'm going to Scandals with him tomorrow night. No, we didn't kiss. I think he wanted to but I got out of the car pretty quickly."

"Oh," said Kurt.

Blaine tried to read Kurt's face, worried that he was being judged. He really didn't know how he felt about Sebastian yet, as he was still so infatuated with Kurt. It was true that he did have a good time, and he figured he could give the bar scene a try.

"Anyway," said Blaine, trying to change the subject. "He did get me a gig singing 'Baby It's Cold Outside' in the King Island's Christmas Spectacular."

"Ah, a personal favorite," said Kurt. "Too bad they'd never let us sing it together. I mean as two artists."

"Well, you can sing it with me now. You can help me practice."

"I thought you'd never ask."

"Very good then," said Blaine. He plugged his ipod into the stereo, scrolling to 'Baby It's Cold Outside'. He turned around and nodded his head towards Kurt, confirming that he'd be singing the girl's part.

"_I REALLY CAN'T STAY"_

"_BUT BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE"_

"_I'VE GOT TO GO AWAY"_

"_BUT BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE"_

"_THIS EVENING HAS BEEN"_

"_BEEN HOPING THAT YOU'D DROP IN"_

"_SO VERY NICE"_

"_I'LL HOLD YOUR HANDS, THEY'RE JUST LIKE ICE"_

Kurt got up from the couch and strolled around the living room, pausing at the fireplace so Blaine could join him.

"_YOUR EYES ARE LIKE STARS RIGHT NOW,"_ sang Blaine. He held up his hands to make a picture frame around Kurt's eyes.

Kurt moved towards the couch and sat down. _"I OUGHT TO SAY NO, NO, NO SIR"_

Blaine sat next to Kurt on the couch and leaned towards him_. "MIND IF I MOVE IN CLOSER" _Blaine scooted over until his thighs were touching Kurt's, but Kurt stood again.

_"AT LEAST I'M GONNA SAY THAT I TRIED"_

Blaine loved being able to get close to Kurt, and act so flirty. Kurt was eating it up, and Blaine felt compelled to continue to impress him. Blaine dabbled on the piano during the instrumental break and they continued their banter.

"_OH BUT IT'S COLD OUTSIDE" _They both finished strongly and collapsed on the couch. They looked at one another.

"I think you're ready," said Kurt.

"Well for the record, you are much better than that girl's gonna be."

"Well, that was just precious." Cooper was leaning against the doorframe, smirking. He walked into the living room and sat on the coffee table. "You two need your own show. Honestly."

"Thanks, Cooper," said Kurt. "It's nice to be appreciated every once in a while." Kurt placed his hand over his heart to mock how touched he was.

"So will you be joining Blaine on his gay bar adventure tomorrow?" asked Cooper.

"No, no, that's not really my thing," said Kurt.

"Damn, I was hoping on having an extra set of eyes out there. Drunk Blaine is not pretty, and I don't trust that Sebastian kid. I mean, if your name was Sebastian…you would go by a nickname, right?"

"Shut up, Coop," said Blaine.

"No, I agree. It's so pretentious," said Kurt. "I already told Blaine that I don't think it's a good idea, but he won't listen. Sebastian has predatory gay written all over him."

"I know what it is," said Cooper. "Blaine loves a challenge, and what a messy situation dating your competition would be."

"Should I just leave you to it? I have other stuff I can do," said Blaine.

"What, like Sebastian?" said Cooper.

"Cooper!"

"Okay, okay, we're done," said Kurt.

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Thank you. I'm going to be careful so you two can stop worrying. And Sebastian is a cool name. It's not pretentious… it's in The Little Mermaid."

* * *

"No, no bow-ties!"

"But it's my signature look!"

"Blaine you are going to a gay bar, people are going to know you're gay."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You need to look dark and handsome, and those bow-ties make you look so much younger. Here." Kurt handed a green button up top to Blaine.

"Just that? It at least needs a sweater vest."

"You're impossible."

Blaine stood in front of his mirror doing a once over. Kurt had come over to Blaine's house before his Scandals date to help him pick out an outfit. So far Blaine had gone against every single piece of fashion advice Kurt had given him except for the black pants he was wearing. Kurt had also talked him out of wearing his candy cane striped socks even though Blaine claimed they were Christmas festive. Kurt sighed from Blaine's bed.

"What? I think I look good," said Blaine, fastening his bow-tie.

"You do, Blaine. It's very…you."

Blaine's phone buzzed and Sebastian's name popped up.

(9:08)

I'm outside, come down

(9:08)

Be right there!

"He's here, waiting outside," said Blaine running his fingers through his hair.

"What a gentleman," said Kurt.

"Oh come on, Kurt. Nobody comes to the door anymore."

"Oh is chivalry dead already?"

Blaine gave Kurt and annoyed look. "Okay, sorry. Have fun tonight…but be safe, okay?"

"Alright, mom," teased Blaine.

He and Kurt went downstairs and out of the front door, evading Blaine's parents. He told them that he was going to Mike's for Brianiac stuff earlier that evening. Kurt gave Blaine a small wave and headed to his car. Blaine watched him go, feeling edgy. Kurt's tittering over Blaine's clothing didn't do much for his nerves, but it wasn't Kurt he was trying to impress tonight. Blaine climbed into Sebastian's car as Kurt drove away from the curb. He shut the door, grateful to get out of the cold.

"I see you managed to ditch the babysitter," said Sebastian once Blaine had clicked on his seatbelt.

"Hah, yeah he was just helping me get ready."

"You look fantastic," said Sebastian, eyeing him over.

"Thanks, I didn't listen to any of his advice so…"

"Clearly you can dress yourself. And at least you shop in the men's section."

Blaine forced a smile though he didn't feel right making fun of Kurt. Blaine admired how Kurt could wear an entirely different outfit everyday. Not everyone could pull off brooches and boots.

He and Sebastian didn't have much to say together during the ride to West Lima. They talked about their Glee Clubs and plans for regionals but couldn't divulge too many details since they would be competing against one another. Blaine was grateful when they arrived.

"Here's your I.D." Sebastian passed him a laminated card.

"This says I'm 38."

Sebastian shrugged and got out of the car. Blaine followed; he wondered if frowning would give him enough wrinkles so that the bouncer would think he was older. He tried to seem confident while the bouncer shined a light on their I.D.'s. "Enjoy, tonight is Drag Queen Wednesday."

Blaine let Sebastian lead him to the bar where he ordered two beers. Blaine drank, while taking in the scene. It was a grungy club and most of the guys there were in their thirties or older. There were about a dozen in drag. He recognized a Tina Turner and Ginger from Gilligan's Island. He couldn't see Kurt in a place like this. No, that didn't matter because Kurt wasn't here and Sebastian was.

"It's not very scandalous," Blaine noted.

"Well you just haven't danced with me yet. Let's go." Sebastian tilted his head towards the dance floor.

Blaine was surprised at how much he was enjoying himself. Sebastian was a decent dance partner; a little hands-y but that wasn't exactly a surprise. After a number of songs Blaine was getting tired of roving his hips and having to move Sebastian's hands from his ass to his waist. He hoped that Single Ladies or something more upbeat would play so he could show off.

"Want to get more to drink?" he asked, feeling that some liquid courage would help his situation.

Sebastian ordered a few shots for Blaine.

"What are these?" Blaine asked, picking up for the first class.

"Don't question it, just drink. I promise, I didn't roofie them," said Sebastian after catching Blaine's look.

Blaine took three burning shots in a row. He tried not to wince too much, but heard Sebastian laugh over the music.

"Way to be, Blaine. I didn't know if you could finish them all."

Blaine grinned.

"So I have to ask, why did you leave Dalton? Did you get bored with all the preppies…or did you break too many hearts to stay?"

"No, no, it's not like that at all. My dad had to take a pay cut so we couldn't afford private school tuition anymore. I've never…I haven't had a boyfriend before…"

"So Kurt's not in the picture?"

"…No. He's just a friend." Blaine thought about slow dancing with Kurt at Burt and Carole's wedding, and his face fell.

"Well that's good. As much as I like competition it just doesn't seem right to fight a girl."

"Hey, Kurt's-"

"Not here right now. Forget about him. Dance with me." Sebastian held out his hand for Blaine to take.

As much as Blaine wanted to defend Kurt he didn't want to ruin his evening, either. He tried to ignore the guilt bubbling in his stomach and the argument building in his throat. Sebastian just didn't know Kurt. He was probably just trying to make Blaine laugh in a misguided way. Blaine accepted Sebastian's offer and danced his way over to the dance floor. He tried not to think about the fact that this was the second time in a few weeks that an extremely handsome boy offered to dance with him. After a few synthesized songs Blaine felt the alcohol's effect and his mood greatly increased. The bad music was catchier, the men trying to dance up on him less threatening and Sebastian more…wow. Blaine grinded up on Sebastian wondering how someone so attractive wanted anything to do with him. Sebastian's hands roamed over Blaine's body and Blaine started feeling hot, turned on, then flustered and embarrassed.

"Hold on, hold on I need to…" Blaine didn't even finish his sentence. He pushed through moving bodies and went to the bar's entrance, to cool down. He took his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through his contact list until he found Kurt's name. Aw, Kurt. He would have had fun dancing with him tonight.

(11:21)

This is the bestr night of my life. i wanna live here. i just wanna livce here and make art and help people.

(11:22)

Aw, you're drunk.

(11:22)

Hey I onbly had one beer!

(11:22)

Okay, hun. Be careful.

Kurt had called Blaine hun! Like they were a couple. Blaine smiled at his phone. "He's almost like my boyfriend," he thought. Boyfriends kiss. And do…other things.

(11:23)

Kurrrrrrrt you shoulfd kill me. I wasn't you to. I want so bad. Let's juxt don't.

(11:24)

…What?

"Hey, who are you texting?"

Blaine looked up from his phone.

"Kurt. I just want…I wan' him to kiss me. Real bad. I want him to..."

"What?" Sebastian yelled over the music.

"I wanhim to kiss me!" Blaine shouted.

"Kiss you?" Sebastian blinked, and looked please. "Wanna get some fresh air?"

Blaine nodded. He stumbled after Sebastian, following him out of the entrance doors. It was cold out, but felt amazing since Blaine had been sweating inside. His face was flushed from the alcohol and when he turned his head it took a moment for the earth to catch up to him. He turned his head again and felt a pair of lips on his own. Sebastian pushed Blaine against the building's wall and leaned into him. It was unexpected, but Blaine let it happen. The kissing was sloppy; Blaine wasn't ready for Sebastian's tongue yet so he tried to fight it, closing his lips more, and Sebastian ended up slobbering over his mouth. He pulled back.

"Mm you taste good," said Sebastian. He apparently thought this was going well. He returned to Blaine's mouth with more vigor and Blaine listened. He listened to his alcohol soaked brain that told him that Sebastian was hot, and he wanted Blaine and he was single. Sebastian pulled at Blaine's shirt, untucking it from his pants and ran his hands over Blaine's chest. Blaine shivered at Sebastian's cold hands. Sebastian seemed to take it as a shiver of desire and his tongue roamed into Blaine's mouth, and Blaine let his hands slide around Sebastian's waist. This was okay. People did this sort of thing all the time.

"Shall we move this party elsewhere?" said Sebastian suddenly, breaking off their kiss and motioning to his car.

Blaine nodded and the parking lot spun. He let Sebastian drag him into the back seat and he sat down, not sure how he got into the car. Suddenly Sebastian was straddling his hips, pulling off Blaine's shirt.

"You're so hot," said Sebastian. He bit Blaine's jawline and Blaine laughed.

"That tickles!"

Sebastian returned to Blaine's mouth and Blaine slid his tongue around Sebastian's. He closed his eyes, feeling sleepy and warm against Sebastian. Blaine kissed back automatically, his mind wandering. He heard zipping and then felt Sebastian's hand sliding under his waistband.

"No, no I don't want-" Blaine moved his hand from Sebastian's hip and pulled Sebastian's hand away.

"Shhh" Sebastian moved his hand back up to Blaine's hip. "It's okay, we can go slower."

"No, I want to stop," Blaine mumbled. "This…this is not good."

"It will be good, I promise," pressed Sebastian.

"No, no no no," said Blaine. He moved Sebastian's hands off of his hips. "You," said Blaine, pointing in Sebastian's face, swaying, "Are taking advantage of me. And I," Blaine slapped a hand on his chest, "am telling you no. So let me just…"

Blaine trailed off. He slid sideways and began pulling himself to the other side of the car, squeezing himself out from underneath Sebastian. He opened the car door and then toppled out of the car, landing hard on his shoulder.

"Ow, fuck," Blaine tried to get up, grasping for the car door but it kept moving away from him.

Sebastian helped Blaine get to his feet and tossed him back his shirt.

"Fine, I get it. You're not ready. I'm gonna go back inside and find someone who is." He left Blaine standing in the parking lot. He got his phone out of his pocket and went to call Cooper.

"Coop?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"I don't know how to get home."

"Are you drunk?"

Blaine spun in circle. When he stopped the parking lot didn't. "Yes."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I…I" Blaine swallowed. "Just come soon."

* * *

Thursday morning Blaine woke with a terrible headache. He practically fell out of bed running to the bathroom to dry heave into the toilet. He was still wearing his clothes from last night and smelled terrible. He didn't remember getting home, so he assumed Cooper had taken care of him and put him to bed. He checked the time and realized he only had twenty minutes until he had to leave for school. Why did he decide to get hammered on a school night?

"You look terrible."

Blaine turned to Quinn. They were in first period Western Civilizations. She dressed in enough floral patters to make an entire garden and was wearing enough perfumed to smell like one.

"I feel terrible," said Blaine. He knew he looked terrible. He picked that over smelling terrible since he had just enough time to shower and throw on whatever was lying around his floor, which was a pair of yellow skinny jeans, converse and a navy and white striped shirt with a grey jacket. He had his glasses on that day and his hair air dried under his hood. At the moment his face was buried in his notebook.

"What did you do last night?" She asked.

"I made stupid choices."

Blaine shuffled into the choir room two classes later, feeling marginally better. The choir room looked like he felt. The tree that they had decorated earlier that week was slashed, with branches and ornaments broken on the ground. All of the gifts collected to donate were stolen and their stockings were ripped to shreds.

Mr. Schuster walked into the classroom and his face fell at the scene.

"They took everything," said Mercedes.

"Including all of Sue's Secret Santa gifts we were gonna give to the homeless kids," said Tina.

"Only further proof that everyone in this school hates us no matter what we do," said Rachel.

"It's not the school," said Mr. Schuster. "It's Sue, she-"

"It wasn't Sue, it was Santa," said Brittany. "He said a light was out in the tree and he'd fix everything. We just need to let him do his thing."

"Okay…" said Mr. Schu, clearly doubting her story. "Are you sure Santa was a boy and not a girl, Brittany?"

"I swear on my life, Santa's a boy everybody knows that."

"It was probably one of the boys on the football team," whispered Rachel.

"I guess it wasn't Sue…" said Mr. Schuster.

"So our tree is gone, so our presents are missing. All around the world today worse things have happened to people than this," said Finn.

Well, that was certainly true, thought Blaine.

"Sorry but I'm not gonna let this get us down. 'Tis the season."

"I agree," said Mr. Schuster. "Come on guys, let's clean this up."

Normally Blaine wasn't a fan of Finn's motivational speeches because they usually led to someone else taking the lead while Blaine cheered them on from the sidelines or embarrassed himself in front of the school. Today, he just had to sweep up some broken ornaments and that wasn't too bad.

"Fun night, huh?" Kurt joined Blaine who was hovering over the trashcan, deciding if he was going to hurl into it or not while emptying his dustbin of broken glass.

"Shhhh" Blaine held up a finger to Kurt.

"Ohh, maybe it wasn't so fun. You should just go to the nurse. You're completely useless at the moment."

When Blaine didn't respond, Kurt called out, "Mr. Schu! I'm taking Blaine to the nurse, he's come down with something."

Mr. Schuster nodded, and Blaine let Kurt direct him to the nurse's office for the second time.

"I hope it was worth it," said Kurt.

Blaine mumbled something incoherent.

"I'm sorry what was that?" Kurt asked. "Oh, my friend here has a migraine, and his parents can't pick him up so I thought he could nap here." Kurt explained to the nurse when the boys walked into her office. She allowed Blaine to lie down and closed a curtain around him so the light wouldn't bother his eyes as much while Blaine inwardly thanked Kurt for being so clever. Kurt decided to stay with him for the rest of the period.

"It wasn't worth it," Blaine mumbled later. Even with his eyes closed he could see Kurt's triumphant expression.

"I knew it. I knew he was bad news."

"It could have been worse. I knew what I was getting into."

"What happened?"

"We danced, we drank…possibly too much. We went out for air and started hooking up. Then we went to his car and he tried…um…stuff but I didn't want to, and I fell and then he made sure I was okay and went back in and I called Cooper." Blaine peeked open one eye to look at Kurt. He looked like he was trying to keep his face neutral but Blaine saw some disappointment there.

"Oh."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"Well I don't know Blaine what do you want me to say? I figured something like that was going to happen, I'm just surprised you let it get so far."

"Well sorry to disappoint you," said Blaine angrily, "but I'm not perfect. This isn't really any of your business anyway."

"Well sorry for caring!" snapped Kurt. He got up from his chair and stalked out of the office, leaving Blaine's head throbbing.

* * *

The next day at school, along with the Christmas miracle of Blaine feeling like a human being again, a brand new Christmas tree graced the New Directions' choir room. Finn continued to force Christmas spirit on everyone, because as Blaine looked around at his fellow classmates, (Rachel, Brittany, Artie and Kurt) he realized he wasn't the only one in need of cheer. Finn and Mr. Schuster decided to have the New Directions carol in the teacher's longue to raise money for the homeless (since they had lost their gifts from Sue's Secret Santa).

"_WELCOME CHRISTMAS COME THIS WAY, FAHOO FORES DAHOO DORES"_

This was such a stupid song. Fahoo Fores sounded like the name of one of the drag queens Blaine saw on Wednesday night. Blaine felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He knew it was inappropriate to text during a performance but he was in the back and figured Rachel's voice and Finn's giant body would deter from anything Blaine was doing in the back row. It was Sebastian: Merry Christmas indeed.

(3:49)

Blaine, please don't ignore me. I'm really sorry about the other night. I just want to make sure you're okay. You can ignore me once I know you got home okay and you're not dead in an alleyway somewhere.

(3:50)

I'm fine. My brother picked me up.

(3:50)

I'm glad to hear you're safe. I was sad that you left. Nearly broke my heart.

(3:51)

You were hooking up with another guy.

(3:51)

Not important. You got me all hot and bothered, so it was your fault.

(3:52)

I assure you, that was not my intention.

(3:52)

I was afraid that you were bored with me. You kept texting your friend.

(3:52)

I can't imagine anyone being bored with you.

(3:53)

Good, because I intend to make up Wednesday night to you. And I promise it won't be boring.

Blaine looked up to see the members of New Directions and the teachers staring at him. The song had ended, but Blaine's background mumbling had not.

"_DAHOO DORES CHRISTMAS DAY…IS…HERE…."_ Blaine tried to morph his deer in the headlights look into a cute caught in the cookie jar one.

"AHHHHH-MEN…" he added, breathing a sigh of relief once he heard laughter. Blaine took a bow, earning applause and amused but exasperated glance from Kurt.

After the rest of the glee club's performance and many jokes at Blaine's expense, Blaine and the rest of the glee club returned to the choir room to put away their matching Christmas sweaters and scarves they had worn in the teacher's longue. Blaine was about to get out his phone and call Cooper to pick him up, since he figured he wouldn't be going to the Hummel-Hudson's for dinner anymore; he and Kurt hadn't spoken since their visit to the nurse's office.

"So," Kurt had his head tilted and wasn't looking at Blaine, a look he normally wore when holding back criticism. "I was wondering if you could bear to not text Sebastian for a few hours of course, maybe you'd like to come over for dinner?"

Blaine couldn't tell if Kurt was still angry or trying to be funny.

"Is that still happening? I didn't know if my tainted presence would be allowed in the pure Hummel fortress of righteousness."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Do I really have to apologize first?"

Blaine exhaled loudly. "No, I was the one being a hung-over asshole. I'm sorry. And thanks for taking me to the nurse."

"I'm sorry too; you're right, it's really not my business who you date. I was just worried about you."

"I guess I deserved the worrying..."

Kurt laughed. "I would say so, from the state of your texts."

"Were they that bad?" Blaine got out his phone and reread the texts he sent Kurt last night.

(11:21)

This is the bestr night of my life. i wanna live here. i just wanna livce here and make art and help people.

(11:22)

Aw, you're drunk.

(11:22)

Hey I onbly had one beer!

(11:22)

Okay, hun. Be careful.

(11:23)

Kurrrrrrrt you shoulfd kill me. I wasn't you to. I want so bad. Let's juxt don't.

(11:24)

…What?

Thank god for Blaine's inability to text properly while drunk and auto-correct. "Wow," Blaine laughed. "I have no idea what I was saying at all…I don't even remember texting you to be honest."

That was a lie. He wanted Kurt to kiss him. He wanted Kurt. In fact, Blaine remembered telling Sebastian that, but maybe…oh. Sebastian must have thought he wanted to kiss him, not Kurt. Wednesday night was making a lot more sense now.

"I guess we'll never know," mused Kurt.

"So! What are we watching at the Hummel-Hudson's tonight? A Christmas Story perhaps?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure that's in our repertoire, you'll just have to wait and see."

* * *

After another delicious meal of Carole's, Kurt brought Blaine up to his bedroom to give him a Christmas present. Blaine wasn't expecting one, but sat on Kurt's bed patiently while Kurt went through his hope chest. Kurt's room looked like it was made for a thirty year old, single bachelor that read books by firelight. It was warm, and clean and everything was in perfect condition. Blaine tried not to rumple Kurt's bed sheets.

"Merry Christmas!" Kurt pushed a thin box into Blaine's hands. It was very similar to the one that Blaine already held in his lap, ready to give to Kurt. He opened the lid and laughed. Kurt had gotten him a copy of the Judy Garland Christmas Special.

"What?" asked Kurt, clearly not expecting Blaine's reaction.

"It's great, Kurt, I love it. Just, here open yours." Blaine tossed his gift to Kurt who opened it. Kurt let out a bark of laughter. Blaine had gotten him the same gift.

"Okay, this, this is why we're best friends," said Kurt.

"Best friends? Have I been upgraded?" asked Blaine.

"Yes, keep up dummy." Kurt smacked Blaine lightly with his movie. "I think I know what we're watching tonight!"

Later, Kurt, Blaine and Carole were glued to the screen and Finn and Burt were asleep (Rachel and Finn had broken up so their Friday Night Dinner party was one member short). Kurt and Blaine sang along and ate sugar cookies that Carole made. If this is what being best friends with Kurt meant, Blaine thought as he watched Kurt sing along to 'Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas', Blaine felt that he didn't mind it at all. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, expecting a text from his brother, but instead it was from Sebastian.

(10:28)

I asked Santa for you for Christmas. I hope he doesn't disappoint. Merry Christmas, Blaine.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Eight: The Sue Sylvester Shuffle**

"GO TITANS!" The crowd cheered on McKinley's football team loudly. They were going to win this game, regardless of what happened in these last twenty seconds.

Rachel and Tina had come to support Mike and the other glee boys on the team. Blaine had mostly come to see Kurt's half-time Cheerio performance, but also because Rachel had insisted that she needed to find activities that would distract her from thinking about Finn. Blaine wondered how watching her ex-boyfriend run around on the football field for two hours would accomplish that, but he wasn't going to try to understand the way that Rachel Berry's mind worked. She was drilling Blaine about Sebastian, who she had heard about from Kurt. He was explaining to her that they were still talking, but hadn't seen each other in person since Scandals even though Sebastian was practically begging to hang out again. Like Kurt, Rachel didn't see the appeal of Sebastian, but she wasn't in Blaine's shoes. While no Kurt, Sebastian could be charming when he wanted to. He was mind-blowingly attractive and quite the performer. Blaine also liked that he went to Dalton, and enjoyed the Romeo and Juliet feel of a forbidden romance. He wasn't in love with Sebastian, but he liked him. He was a good distraction from Kurt prancing around in his Cheerios costume. What could Blaine say? He liked a guy in a uniform.

"What the hell was that?" Burt yelled, who was sitting behind Blaine and grabbing at his shoulder. Finn had messed up somehow and while the Titans still won, their last play had been an embarrassment. Blaine vowed that at the next football game he would pay attention to the game instead of gossiping with the girls. He watched the boys sulk off of the field while Coach Bieste screeched at them. The Cheerios tried to lighten the crowds' mood, doing a few dance moves (and high kicks in Kurt's case) but everyone was too busy grumbling their way out of the stands to watch. Blaine was glad it was the weekend; the guys would have time to get over their moping by Monday.

* * *

Blaine was listening to Kurt jabber away about the upcoming Cheerios competition on Monday when Artie rolled into the choir room, covered head to toe in red slushie.

"Oh my god, Artie!" Tina cried.

"It was awful," said Artie, shivering.

"That's it," said Finn, standing up, "Screw rehearsal. This ends here and now." Puck, Sam, Mike and Blaine stood up, ready to take on the football players.

"We're gonna go all thunder dome on those guys!" said Puck.

At that moment, however, the football team strolled into the choir room, looking around.

"So this is what the lady's longue looks like on the inside," said one of the players.

"This is the choir room," said Sam. "Now put up your firsts 'cause you and I are gonna do some dancing."

"Nah, I got this Sam," said Finn taking a step forward.

Karofsky spoke up. "Coach Bieste told us to come here, where is she?"

Coach Bieste walked in with Mr. Schuster. "Watch it, everyone have a seat," she pointed towards the rows of chairs.

"You too, guys," said Mr. Schuster.

Blaine sat back down next to Kurt, and all of the other boys took a seat as well.

"Alright, New Directions! Let's give a warm welcome to the newest members of Glee Club!"

"What!"

"You're joking!"

"Oh hell to the no!"

Both New Directions and the football players were standing and screaming in protest. Coach Bieste and Mr. Schu waited patiently for them to quiet down.

"Mr. Schu are you serious? These are the guys that bully Kurt, Artie, and everyone on a daily basis!" said Finn.

"There is no way that I am sharing the choir room with a known homophobe!" said Rachel, pointing at Karofsky.

"I don't disagree with you guys, but I talked to Coach Bieste and she and I both agreed that the kind of bullying that David does is born out of ignorance. Having him here, as difficult as it may be for us is an opportunity to show him and the rest of the guys that being in Glee Club is kind of cool! Find some common ground."

"All of you are gonna be in Glee Club for one week, no exceptions," said Coach Bieste to her team.

Blaine laid his head back over the edge of his chair. This was going to be awful. He stopped listening to the complaints among the football players and instead turned to look at Kurt. Oh crap, he was terrified; he was going to have to share the choir room with Karofsky for a week. Blaine had to stay by his side to make sure nothing bad would happen. Everyone knew that Karofsky was a bully, but only he and Kurt knew to what extent.

* * *

Later, the New Direction members and football team were thrown into the choir room again for after school rehearsal. Already in a bad mood, they were brought to a worse temper when Mr. Schuster informed them that the Cheerios had moved their competition to this Saturday, the same day as the championship football game. Mr. Schu suggested that the Glee Club and football team seize this opportunity to perform at the half-time show in the Cheerios absence.

"Okay, what about the Cheerios in Glee Club?" asked Quinn after everyone was done shouting.

"They have a choice. Us or the Cheerios competition," said Finn.

Blaine and Kurt looked at one another, worried.

"Well obviously Quinn is going to choose the Cheerios," snarled Rachel.

"That's not fair," said Finn. "You don't know what she's going to do."

"I think the Cheerios competition is going to be a lot of fun," said Mr. Schu. "But if you go, you're gonna miss out on us doing the most iconic song of all time. The Super Bowl of pop anthems: Thriller."

Mercedes and Kurt let out a moan. Blaine knew which team he would pick if he was in Kurt's position but he had absolutely nothing to give up on his social ladder at McKinley. This situation was obviously different for Mercedes, Kurt, Quinn, Brittany and Santana. Mr. Schuster told them they would also be mashing up 'Thriller' with 'Heads Will Roll' and that he hoped Santana would be lead singer. The Cheerios and football players were frustrated, but the rest of New Directions were bouncing in their seats with excitement.

"Alright New Directions, Titans," said Coach Bieste, "we're going to zombie camp."

* * *

Tuesday, at the after school Glee rehearsal, Blaine was trying his best to zombie-fy his face. He wasn't used to putting on make-up, but he had conquered looking pale. Kurt propped himself on the table in front of Blaine and snatched the make up brush out of his hand.

"That's enough. You're pale, but now you need some purple."

"Purple?" asked Blaine, dubiously.

"Yes," Kurt tilted Blaine's head up and started applying purple eye shadow underneath his eyes. Kurt had already done his make up and Blaine couldn't understand how he was still attracted to him while pieces of what looked like Kurt's bone and muscle poked through his face.

"So what are you going to do about Saturday?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Kurt. He began to add some fake blood to Blaine's hairline. "If I go to the competition, I'm out of the Glee Club. If I miss this competition, I'm off of the squad."

"Quit Cheerios," suggested Blaine.

"You just want to hang out with me more," said Kurt. "If I quit Cheerios I'll be bullied even more than I do now. This uniform protects me."

"I'll protect you," said Blaine before he could stop himself.

"And end up breaking your nose again? No thanks. There." Kurt walked away from Blaine and admired his work from afar. "Perfect."

Blaine looked at his reflection in the mirror and didn't recognize himself. He glanced around the choir room, noticing that he blended in with the undead crowd there. Karofsky was looking at Kurt and Blaine from across the room and Blaine glared at him until he turned back to his football friends. While Blaine understood why Kurt was having trouble deciding what to do, he knew that Kurt loved glee more than cheerleading. He would just have to convince him of this before Saturday.

* * *

Blaine was stopped at his locker the next afternoon when he saw Finn storming by, a furious expression fixed on his face. Blaine slammed his locker door shut and threw his bag over his shoulder.

"Finn!" Blaine jogged to catch up to Finn, and continued to walk faster than he normally would to match Finn's strides. "What's going on? What's up?"

"All the Cheerios quit Glee Club."

"What? All of them? Are you sure?"

"I just called out Quinn, they all quit, dude. They're so obsessed about what everyone thinks about them at this school that they'll give up anything to keep their popularity. It's pathetic." Finn stalked off leaving Blaine to go to his Brainiac meeting. He didn't want to believe that all of them had quit, maybe it was just Quinn.

"Did you hear?" asked Mike the second Blaine walked into the classroom.

"Yeah. They all quit. Wow," said Blaine.

Brittany was hugging her legs to her chest. "I didn't want to guys, but the mommy cannon needed my help."

Artie sighed. "Brittany, you can't shoot yourself out of that cannon. It's too dangerous, Sue is just trying to make you stay."

"You know," said Tina. "Now that we've lost five members, we're three people short to compete at regionals."

"This is ridiculous. Why can't Mr. Schuster just let them miss this one performance?" said Artie.

"Glee Club is a graded class, and performance attendance is mandatory," said Mike.

"I guess now we know where everyone's loyalties lie," said Tina.

Blaine headed to the gymnasium after his Brainiac meeting. He was going to talk to Kurt. He couldn't believe that he would just bail on all of his friends like that…or him. He waited outside of the gymnasium doors until he saw Kurt walk out with Mercedes. He was dressed immaculately and out of his uniform, his hair shiny and freshly styled.

"Kurt!" called out Blaine. Kurt exchanged a look with Mercedes and she continued walking while he backtracked to meet up with Blaine.

"Hi," he said. He looked nervous but for once Blaine didn't feel sorry for him.

"You quit New Directions? Seriously?"

Kurt took a deep breath. "You know I didn't want to. But I'm safer on the Cheerios."

"You know that we're three people short for competing at regionals now?"

Kurt looked surprised for a moment and then locked his eyes on the floor. "Looks like there might be a Dalton victory after all. Sebastian should be pleased."

"This has nothing to do with Sebastian, Kurt! You love glee club; you want to go to NYADA, why would you give that up? Is being popular more important to you than your future?"

"Well you tell me, Mr. Football Try-Outs! Is it so wrong to want to feel safe at your own school? I thought you'd understand of all people, being bullied yourself! That's why you went to Dalton in the first place!"

"Yeah but at least I took a stand for myself first! I didn't kiss ass to people that were cruel to me and drop my friends!"

"I'm not dropping you!"

"What do you call this?" Blaine held out his arms, to gesture to himself and then let them fall. "You're letting me down, Kurt. And Rachel and Finn and everyone else in Glee Club that were counting on going to regionals and getting into their dream schools!"

"Oh sure, blame everyone's failure on me. You know you're only three people short for regionals, not five! Go convince Brittany and Mercedes to come back!"

"God, you're just as bad as Karofsky! You're being a coward!"

Smack. Blaine felt Kurt's hand slap across his face in the same moment he realized he'd gone too far. He had never seen Kurt look so angry. Blaine immediately went to apologize.

"Kurt, no I didn't mean to say-"

"Don't you ever compare me to him, Blaine. And look I'm sorry that my quitting the Glee Club has such a negative effect competitively, but I need to watch out for myself."

"Please don't quit," started Blaine.

"It's done. And you're no longer obligated to come to our competition Saturday. Feel free to stay here and whore around with Sebastian."

Blaine felt like he had been slapped again. He watched Kurt walk off feeling miserable, and then turned the other direction to go home.

"Blaine!" Rachel was sitting in the lobby. Blaine stopped walking. "I was just about to call you, I wanted to - Are you okay?" Rachel had gotten close enough to Blaine to get a proper look at him. Blaine bit his lip and stared at the ceiling, forcing himself to calm down.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Wanna go get some coffee? We have some major brainstorming to do."

* * *

Blaine drove Rachel to The Lima Bean, figuring that they wouldn't run into any Cheerios or football players there. Rachel informed Blaine that after the football team had walked around the hallways wearing their zombie make up, they were slushied by the hockey team and all of them quit Glee Club, meaning that they also quit playing in the championship game. Blaine groaned and laid his head on the table.

"This is terrible, what are we going to do?"

"Hey handsome."

Blaine picked his head up and immediately started blushing. It was Sebastian. He slid into the chair next to Blaine.

"Hi?" asked Rachel, looking very confused.

"Sebastian Smythe." Sebastian shook Rachel's hand and a very obvious look of 'Oh that's him and he's good looking!' dawned on Rachel's face.

"I thought I might run into you here at some point, you can't evade me forever you know."

"I wasn't evading you I was just, um…" Blaine trailed off awkwardly and took a sip of his drink.

"We're in a crisis if you don't mind," said Rachel.

"Well maybe I can be of some assistance," said Sebastian.

Rachel filled Sebastian in on their current problem.

"Well, the good news is, you only need four more guys to play," said Sebastian.

"Really?" asked Blaine.

"Yeah, a lot of high school teams are allowed to play if they're short a few players. And technically, you only need bodies on the field, right? Not athletes?"

Rachel looked impressed. "That's brilliant! Blaine, you, Lauren, Tina and I could play!"

"We could what?" said Blaine.

"Yes, we'll just be on the field so the guys have enough players! Oh, I need to go call the girls!" Rachel grabbed her phone and started dialing.

"So, I was thinking, Scandals part deux tonight? Let me make it up to you," said Sebastian once Rachel was on the phone, talking loudly to Tina.

Blaine was still trying to process the fact that he would be playing football Saturday to even consider Sebastian's offer. "I don't know if I'm ready to go back. It's been a rough week."

"That's exactly the reason to go then, isn't it?" Sebastian smiled and Blaine felt his defenses begin to melt.

"I…I um…wow, this um, coffee is really hot," said Blaine stupidly.

"Listen," Sebastian leaned in towards Blaine and put his hand on Blaine's thigh. Blaine tried not to breathe his coffee breath onto Sebastian's beautiful face. "Why don't you drop Barbara off at her house, and meet me at Scandals tonight? I promise, it won't be like last time. This will be all about you."

Blaine thought about losing at regionals, and Kurt slapping his face. He thought about humiliating himself on the football field on Saturday in front of the entire school. All of these thoughts made the idea of 'whoring around with Sebastian' seem positively fun.

"When should I meet you?"

* * *

Much later Blaine opened his eyes to an unfamiliar darkness. He focused on the glowing numbers across the room reading 2:04 AM. Blaine reached out to grab his cell on his nightstand but there was no nightstand. He sat up suddenly and the rush of blood made him dizzy and his head started to pound. He was clammy, and sticky with sweat. Blaine readied himself and looked down, discovering that he was very much naked and very much in bed with Sebastian Smythe. Sebastian was sleeping, and Blaine wanted to smack him for looking so gorgeous and innocent, even with bed hair. Blaine tried to remember what had happened that night. He had slept with Sebastian. Gone were his fantasies of losing his virginity on opening night of his Broadway debut. He wouldn't be drunk on love and wearing an engagement ring, but drunk on something called "Adios Motherfucker" and losing his virginity somewhere between a club bathroom and Sebastian's bed. Blaine needed to leave. Now. His eyes were accustomed to the darkness now and he located his clothing on the floor. Good, at least he had gotten undressed here...hopefully. Blaine slid out from under the sheets and crept to his discarded underwear and jeans and began to dress himself.

"Mmm, where are you going, beautiful?" asked Sebastian from the bed.

Blaine glanced at Sebastian while buttoning his jeans, all of his planned accusations and questions stuck in his throat. Oh, god he was like a model when he smiled. It wasn't fair. "I need to go home, I can't stay here."

"So…is this a one time thing or?" Sebastian rolled over onto his side, and propped his head on his hand to watch Blaine as he put on his shirt and searched the floor for his socks and shoes.

"I...I don't know what this was, or what it means…I don't know." All Blaine knew was that he had to get out of there. Oh god, how had he gotten there?

"I drove your car here. Here-" Sebastian reached over onto his night stand (on the opposite side of the bed) and tossed Blaine his car keys. "Call me when you figure this out. I want to see you again."

"You do?"

Sebastian gave him a grin and Blaine felt himself begin to melt again. He snuck out before he could do more damage. Once safely in his car he rested his head on the steering wheel and felt a few tears escape. What was he doing? What had he done? Blaine started to remember small flashes of the night: stumbling around Scandals and heated dancing. He remembered shoving Sebastian onto the bed, hands pulling off his jeans and teeth tugging at his waistband. Suddenly Sebastian's mischievous eyes turned into Kurt's and Blaine's own eyes snapped open in anger. He didn't whore around. Sebastian had been an absolute gentleman…of sorts. He had kept his word, and last night was all about Blaine. He took things slowly, he didn't force Blaine to do anything he didn't want to, and Blaine had liked it. Blaine didn't just let it happen like last week, he wanted it to happen. He wanted to get Kurt out of his head and let Sebastian in instead. But he would have never done this before meeting Kurt. Blaine wanted to be in love when he lost his virginity…maybe he was? If he wasn't, why would he have slept with Sebastian? Or maybe he was in love but with another person. Blaine pulled out his phone and saw that he had seventeen missed calls. He texted Cooper to let him know that he was safe and on his way home, and used the GPS on his phone to direct himself there. He let the radio blare on his drive home and sang along to every song, but there was no laughter like when driving with Kurt.

* * *

"Why don't we let them back on the team for just this one game?" Sam asked Coach Bieste.

"No, we carry this one through. It's both or nothing," she answered.

What was left of the Glee Club were in the choir room, trying to save their football game, their half-time show, their shot at regionals, their academic futures.

"I can't believe this is it," said Finn.

"Maybe it isn't," said Rachel. She got out of her seat and stood in front of her friends, unable to keep the smile from her face. "We want to join the team."

"We who?" asked Artie.

"We do," said Blaine. "The rest of the glee club members. We wanna join the team, and we wanna win the championship."

"Come on guys stop screwing around. It's not cool," said Mike.

"What's not cool is you guys not respecting women enough to realize that we're perfectly capable of playing football," said Lauren. "And Blaine." She added after Blaine cleared his throat.

"Rachel have you actually seen a tackle football game? When they tackle you, it hurts," said Mr. Schu.

"Yeah, and not in a good Melloncamp way," said Puck.

"We thought about that and the truth is that you don't really need us to play, you just need enough people out there to have a regulation team. So when they snap the ball we're just gonna lie on the ground. Just lie there."

"Well I'm not, I'm gonna bring the pain," said Lauren. Blaine nodded in agreement.

"Well, I guess you won't get hurt if you stay down," said Coach Bieste, considering their argument.

"What do your parents have to say about this?" asked Mr. Schuster.

"We all have signed permission forms from them. It took some convincing but they understand what it means to us," said Tina.

"What do you think coach?" said Mr. Schuster, turning to Coach Bieste.

"I think…welcome to the football team!"

"Yes!" Blaine joined the others in celebration. They could win this, and then they could win regionals. Things would work out.

* * *

Saturday evening Blaine was covered in padding and a helmet (this time one that fit his head), crouched on the football field in front of hundreds of people.

"All right man? You'll do fine." Finn clapped his shoulder. Blaine felt like he was going to throw up. He had embarrassed himself enough the first time he tried to play football, and now he would be concussed in front of the entire student body. At least this time he wasn't the smallest player on the field; that was Rachel. She was ecstatic about the situation. All of the girls loved the attention they were getting from the crowd and the opposing team. Blaine figured it wouldn't last long.

"LET'S KICK SOME ASS!" yelled Rachel.

"Alright, lines of Judy on three!" Finn called.

"Who's Judy?" asked Rachel and Blaine wondered the same thing. He refused to lie on the ground like Rachel and Tina, but he didn't know their plays either. He'd just try to block the opposing members.

At halftime the Titans were losing badly. Tina had tried to get the football but was squashed by another player and had to sit out. With eight players they would have to forfeit.

Blaine saw Finn talking to Puck and then walk off of the field.

"Where are you going?" said Rachel.

"Can't have a halftime show without cheerleaders!" Finn ran off.

"Alright, I'm going to go find the football team, you guys go get into costume for the show. We're still performing. Go!" ordered Puck.

Blaine rolled Artie to the locker room with Sam, Rachel, Mike, Lauren and Tina. The girls went to change and the boys started to add their zombie make up. Blaine's make up wasn't as good as when Kurt had done it but it was passable. He headed out to the field and was amazed to see the rest of the football team, zombied up and ready to perform. He smiled, recognizing Finn walking back with five Cheerios. Rachel let out a shriek and started jumping up and down with Tina. Blaine joined them and earned some odd looks from the football team, but Blaine didn't care because they had came back to perform! Finn filled everyone in on how Brittany, Quinn, Santana, Kurt and Mercedes quit the Cheerios as he put on his make up. Soon everyone was ready. The fog machines were up and running and the music began to play through the speakers. Luckily the marching band had done a pre-show before joining the New Directions and the football team for their performance so the crowd wasn't kept waiting.

"_OFF WITH YOUR HEAD! D-DANCE DANCE DANCE 'TIL YOUR DEAD!"_

Blaine dragged his feet onto the football field. He was having a hard time keeping from skipping, feeling a giant weight off of his shoulders. He gave a zombie grimace in Kurt's direction but he was completely in character and pretending to gnaw off his own arm. Artie had taken the crowd by storm when he began to sing 'Thriller'. Everyone was screaming in the stands and halfway through the show Karofsky joined in, pulling his football jersey over his sweatshirt. Blaine rolled his head and growled while not singing the chorus. Stomping and dancing, he felt the happiest he had been all week. It was amazing how many different emotions a person could feel in seven days, and how singing could temporarily solve all of his problems. When the song ended Blaine felt like he was absorbing every good feeling in the stadium. He didn't have to get knocked around on the field anymore. Kurt and the others had quit the Cheerios for New Directions, and they were set for regionals.

The football team jogged off of the field and towards the locker rooms. The rest of the New Directions and the marching band stood off field, waiting for them to return and start the third quarter. Blaine stood next Artie, who wouldn't be playing for the second half. He scanned the mass of uniformed zombies for Kurt, who had his arms crossed over his chest and was glaring up at Karofsky who was much too close for anyone's comfort. Blaine ran over, forgetting that Kurt probably still hated him and he was half Karofsky's size and wearing make up.

"Hey Karofsky, shouldn't you be getting padded up for the second half?" Blaine asked coolly, wishing he were still wearing his helmet.

Karofsky turned to Blaine, "Shouldn't you get out of that uniform? You don't deserve to wear it."

"I think I deserve it more than you do. Why don't you leave Kurt alone? I can promise you he's not interested in anything you have to say."

"But he's a Cheerio. He has to listen to what I say, and like it."

"Well I quit Karofsky. So leave before I get Coach Bieste," said Kurt.

Karofsky looked behind him to see if Coach Bieste was looking. "I'm out of here. You might want to keep that make up on, lady-face. It makes you look much prettier." Karofsky gave him a wink and ran off to the locker rooms.

"Are you okay? I only just saw him, I would have come over earlier if-"

Blaine's words and breath were cut off as Kurt lunged into his arms, squeezing him and trying to hug every inch of him.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry Blaine; I should have never slapped you or said those awful things! You're so important to me, much more than being popular and I was being stupid. I quit the Cheerios! Can we please stop fighting? This week has been terrible!"

Kurt was clinging to Blaine like his life depended on it, and Blaine hugged back, realizing how much he had missed his best friend.

"I'm sorry too, Kurt! I really didn't mean what I said about Karofsky, I was just being dumb."

Kurt let go of Blaine and when they finally saw each other they burst out laughing at their zombie make up.

"Awww! Isn't this better?" Rachel came over and hugged them both.

"Oh my god, last Friday was so miserable! I had to live tweet Schindler's List," said Kurt.

Rachel started to defend the movie and 'her people' against Kurt. Blaine smiled at the both of them; this was so much better than Scandals. His smile faltered when he saw Sebastian walking towards the edge of the stands. Blaine walked over in his direction, looking up at him from the field.

"Sebastian, what are you doing here?"

"I came to support you," said Sebastian, leaning over the guardrail. "I said I wanted to see you again; I didn't realize I would be getting in the way of…some sort of reunion," Sebastian gestured towards Kurt who was watching them.

"Oh, we're not-" started Blaine.

"I figured. You guys were brilliant. Well, the performance was…the football team needs some work."

"Well thankfully I'm done playing for the night."

"Want to come play with me?" Sebastian winked.

"I…well, I was going to hang out with some friends tonight. I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you to be here."

Sebastian shrugged. "That's fine. Just come say bye to me when the game's done. I'll wait here for you."

"Okay…see you," said Blaine. He walked back towards Kurt and Rachel who were giving him very interested looks.

"Did I miss something?" asked Kurt.

"Blaine and I ran into Sebastian on Wednesday. He was the one who gave us the idea of playing so we'd have enough people for a football team," said Rachel. "I guess he wanted to see how it turned out."

"Oh, is that all?" said Kurt. He was giving Blaine a look that he couldn't quite read.

"Yep!" said Blaine. He wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to tell Kurt about Wednesday night. "Oh look, we're missing it!" Blaine pretended to be enthralled in the game and Kurt went to go cheer for the last time with Quinn, Mercedes, Santana, and Brittany while they all still had their pom-poms. The Titans had a miraculous win, with the entire stadium was chanting 'brains!' until their voices were hoarse to distract the other team. Blaine snuck up to the stands in all of the commotion and found Sebastian.

"I can't believe you actually came to see me," said Blaine.

"After Wednesday night? What could keep me away?" asked Sebastian. Without warning, he pulled Blaine in and started to kiss him. Hard. Blaine didn't know what to do. He wasn't exactly screaming about being out and proud at McKinley, but after his fight with Kurt it would be hypocritical to hide it. He hoped that with all of the excitement no one would notice. After what seemed like hours of kissing and roaming hands Sebastian released him.

"You better make tonight up to me, because now I'm going to have some weird erotic zombie dream," breathed Sebastian into his ear. He joined the exiting crowd and Blaine turned to head back down to the field. He immediately locked eyes with Kurt who was staring right at him, his expression unreadable.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I sincerely apologize for the delayed update; I hope to make up for it within the next few weeks. It seems that that the only way to get reviews out of you guys is to upset you :p. Sorry, I'm just trying to stick to the storyline while keeping the plot realistic. I hope this chapter makes up for a bit. Enjoy!

**Chapter Nine: Silly Love Songs**

Blaine donned his red sweater, maneuvering it carefully so that he wouldn't mess up his hair. He slid his hand over his gelled hair, checking for fly-a-ways and then rubbed the greasy residue onto his jeans. He debated on leaving his heart printed bow-tie hanging loosely around his neck, but decided he looked more put together with it done properly. He pulled a few faces in the mirror and grabbed his keys and wallet and bounded down the stairs.

"Good morning, Cupid," said Cooper, who was eating cereal at the kitchen table.

"I'm glad my holiday festivity is already being appreciated," said Blaine, gesturing to his sweater.

"Yeah, well it's hard to really look at anything else. Where are you going?"

"To the Lima Bean. I'm treating Kurt for coffee, still getting back on his good side."

"And are you all fancy for him?"

"No," Blaine drawled. "The Lima Bean is a common hang out for certain dreamy Warblers if you recall."

"Oh. Him." Cooper took another bite of his Cocoa Puffs.

"Cooper, calm down. Your supportiveness is overwhelming. I need to catch my breath." Blaine waved his hands in front of his eyes, mimicking choking up.

"I wish you every happiness, and maybe you and Sir Meerkat Face will adopt snarky, bar hopping babies."

"And then you can baby sit them, since it looks like you'll be alone forever. A date with cereal…" Blaine scrunched his face in forced pity. "How sad."

Cooper gave Blaine a tired glare. "There's still time, I could find a date."

"Sure, just scatter some of your Cocoa Pebbles in the park and maybe the ladies will gather like pigeons."

"Go get your overpriced coffee you fuck."

"Take a shower, I can smell your pathetic love life from here!"

"Hope you crash!"

"Hope you drown!"

Blaine drove to the Lima Bean, singing along to the radio and feeling extremely pleased with his witty comebacks. He didn't usually get the last word. He pulled into a spot near the back of the coffee shop and made his way inside as quickly as he could, feeling his shoulder muscles relax once he was out of the cold. The shop was busy and it took a minute for Blaine to find Kurt. He was sitting in one of the green, squashy armchairs by the window, legs crossed and leaning back, as if his ass was too good for the chair it was sitting on. Kurt had on grey skinny jeans and one of his many pairs of clunky boots, and was in a white trench coat that Blaine thought, quite honestly would look just as nice on a woman. Kurt looked up from his phone and when he saw Blaine his bored expression broke into a smile. Blaine mouthed "hey!" and waved to Kurt so that he'd join him in line. Blaine was a morning person but was still eager for coffee.

"Don't you look….pink," said Kurt once he was in line with Blaine.

"This sweater is red."

"No, no it's not honey."

Blaine moved up a space in line, thanking whoever or whatever was listening up in the sky because Kurt hadn't said anything yet about Sebastian or the football game yesterday night. Maybe he hadn't seen them kiss, maybe the excitement of winning the football championship, the zombie costumes, and exiting crowd had hidden the make out session in the stands. Blaine hoped so. He knew his bar hookup wouldn't impress Kurt. He was a romantic, like Blaine.

"Okay, I'm all for flare but these Valentine's Day decorations are just tacky. I mean…what the hell is this supposed to be?" Kurt shoved a heart shaped pillow topped with two stuffed dogs kissing in Blaine's face. Well, maybe he wasn't as romantic as Blaine remembered.

"It's clearly puppy love," said Blaine. "It's cute, come on…it's adorable."

"Oh, this is creepy," said Kurt putting down the decoration as it shouted 'I love you!' at him.  
"It's a simple excuse to sell candy and greeting cards on a holiday."

"Not true," said Blaine. "People have been celebrating Valentine's Day for centuries and call me a hopeless romantic, but it's my favorite holiday."

"Really?" said Kurt.

Now that Blaine thought about it, he supposed he also loved Christmas and New Years… really any winter holiday that had a romantic feel to it. Before Blaine had come out he used to charm the ladies with poems, songs, and origami (that was a bad phase). Never before had he had a boy interested in him and vice versa on Valentine's Day. The prospect of getting to impress Sebastian was making him giddy.

"I think there's something really great about a holiday where you're encouraged to lay it all out on the line and say to somebody, 'I'm in love with you.'" Blaine paused and locked eyes with Kurt. "You know?" he continued, "And this year I wanna do something really radical so I need your opinion on this. But there's this guy that I sort of like and I've only known him for a little while, but I want to tell him that my feelings are starting to…change…into something deeper." Love? Maybe, not. But there was some relationship material there. "So I have to ask, do you think it's too much to sing to someone on Valentine's Day?"

Kurt looked impressed. "Not at all."

"What can I get you?" asked the woman behind the counter once they reached the front of the line.

"Uh, a medium drip and a grande nonfat mocha for this guy, and maybe I can get him to split one of those cupid cookies," said Blaine, getting his wallet out of his pocket, feeling spirited.

"You know my coffee order?" asked Kurt.

"Of course I do." Blaine gave Kurt an odd look. They went to the Lima Bean at least twice a week and Kurt always ordered the same thing.

"That'll be $8.45," said the cashier. Blaine handed over a ten-dollar bill before Kurt could even open his wallet.

"Don't even bother dummy, it's on me," said Blaine. "Keep the change," he added to the cashier before grabbing a table. Kurt was all smiles when he joined Blaine at the small table by the window a few moments later. Getting back on Kurt's good side was easier than Blaine imagined it would be.

"So, do I know this boy that you're going to serenade?" Kurt asked while putting his messenger bag by his feet.

"Yes," said Blaine. "But don't bother guessing because I'm not telling you who just yet."

"Ugh," Kurt threw his head back. "This is torture."

Blaine smiled at Kurt; he was glad that they made up. Blaine hated fighting almost as much as he hated the effect humidity had on his hair.

"What are you staring at? Do I have something on my face?" asked Kurt, snapping Blaine out of his thoughts.

Blaine realized he had been gazing at Kurt. "Sorry, I'm just not used to seeing you out of your Cheerios uniform. You have quite the wardrobe."

"It's my pride and joy," said Kurt, enjoying the compliment. He was in a great mood, it seemed, because he ate half of Blaine's cookie without making one weight remark.

* * *

Monday during glee rehearsal Mr. Shu started the lesson off by drawing a giant heart on the whiteboard with the word 'Love' in its center.

"Alright guys, I have one word for you," he said.

"Is it love?" asked Brittany.

"This week's lesson I want you guys to pick a partner because you're gonna sing to them what you think is the world's greatest love song. Find a song that communicates all the things that love means to you. Now partner up."

"Mr. Schu, can I say something?" Finn walked to the middle of the choir room. "I'd just like to point out that for the first time a whole week has gone by without one of us getting slushied…"

Blaine stopped paying attention because Kurt had passed him a note.

_Partners?_

Blaine was surprised. He assumed that Kurt would want to sing with Mercedes, but he was so flattered to have someone want to be his partner this time around that he didn't bother resisting.

_Sure_ he wrote back.

Kurt continued to doodle in his notebook with a red sharpie for the rest of the lesson, so Blaine was forced to pay attention. He didn't think that Finn's idea of a "Kiss the Quarterback" booth would raise enough money to pay for their transportation to regionals; there simply weren't enough girls in the school who would pay one dollar per kiss to the lead singer of the Glee Club. Sam Evan's lips might be better for the job. At the end of practice Blaine waltzed over to Kurt, who had seen him approaching and stuffed his notebook into his bag quickly.

"Writing down song ideas for our duet?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah, um, just doodling, really," said Kurt, standing up. "Did you think of any songs to sing?"

"I was leaning towards something by The Beatles," said Blaine. "Those guys knew what they were talking about when it came to love. You think anyone's going to want to kiss Finn? I mean, besides for Rachel. Personally, I think we might make more money with Sam's lips."

"Sam? What- wait, no – is it Sam?!" Kurt's eyes widened as they darted between Blaine and Sam.

"What? No. I just meant if I was a girl, I would rather kiss Sam than Finn," said Blaine, understanding that Kurt thought Sam was the boy Blaine wanted to serenade.

"Blaine, you're gay. You're allowed to think that Sam's attractive, but just so you know I don't think he'd be interested. Believe me, I've been down that road before. He's into Quinn now, and I'm not sure if he's done with his whole Justin Bieber phase. Actually, it would probably be difficult to kiss him…your lips would get like, suctioned into a portal…" Kurt and Blaine were both staring at Sam now, who was watching Quinn pack up her bag. Sam looked up and gave both boys an odd look. "What?" he mouthed.

"So, uh, text me about song choices, yeah?" said Blaine, whipping his head around to face Kurt again.

"Of course. After Grey's Anatomy."

* * *

After dinner that evening, Blaine had sung almost the entire "Try This" album by Pink to Cooper in search of the world's greatest love song. So far he was unsuccessful.

"Blaine, I hate to break it to you, but you are not going to find a romantic, passionate song by Katy Perry either," said Cooper.

"Well I'm also looking for a more upbeat one, a crowd pleaser."

"A crowd, huh?"

"Yes. I'm giving an impromptu performance at the Gap."

"Is this one of those flash mob things? I thought were done with those," said Cooper, invested in Angry Birds on his phone.

"No, it's a public serenade to Sebastian. That's where he works so I thought I'd surprise him."

Cooper looked up. "What?"

"You know Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday, Coop. I want to do something major, something he'll remember."

"I thought we were looking for a song to sing for Kurt?" Cooper looked dumbfounded.

"No, we were looking for a song to sing _with_ Kurt… as a Glee Club assignment. But I also need and a song to sing _to_ Sebastian at The Gap. So two songs, really, if you want to be technical."

"Hold on." Cooper threw his phone onto the mattress and sat up, giving his full attention to Blaine. "Right now you have the perfect opportunity to sing a love song to Kurt, your best friend who you have been crushing on for forever…. and instead you're going to serenade some boy you go to gay clubs with…at the Gap?"

"Okay, well when you put it like that it sounds weird," argued Blaine. "Coop, Kurt isn't into me. We've been through this before. We're just friends. Sebastian likes me. We've been texting nonstop since he came to the football game. Which he surprised me by coming to, because he wanted to support me I might add."

"Are you sure you're doing this for the right reasons?" asked Cooper.

"It's Valentine's Day, Cooper. The day you think with your heart, not listen to reason."

"Blaine, I'm going to be honest with you, so please try not to interrupt."

Blaine nodded to prove that he could behave.

"I think you're scared to admit your feelings to Kurt, because you think he doesn't like you back…which is ridiculous by the way because even _I_ can tell that he likes you. I think instead, you're convincing yourself that Sebastian is the one just because it's easier."

"I am so sick of people telling me how they think Kurt feels. You don't know, Cooper. I know, because he tells me we're friends. He told me that we'd never work out. Sebastian wants to be with me."

"In what way, Blaine? Does he want to be your boyfriend or does he just want to mess around?" Cooper's eyes softened. "Look – I don't want you to get hurt. All I know is that you go to Kurt's house for dinner every Friday night, even though Kurt's no longer the fifth wheel. And Sebastian left you drunk, and stranded, and upset in a parking lot at night. I think you're scared, but I also think that you have the balls to get one of these boys on Valentine's Day. So, make sure you pick the right one."

Blaine wanted to prove Cooper wrong about Kurt and Sebastian as much as he wanted to get rid of all doubts he was having on his own. If Sebastian liked Blaine's song it would prove that he wanted to be a couple, not just someone to hook up with. Blaine wanted to be in a serious relationship. Wednesday was a mistake. He knew that now. Sebastian needed to know that he was in this for love, not sex. And if Kurt would help him out by singing with him at The Gap, then he would be best friend, not boyfriend material.

* * *

Thursday after school, Blaine and the other New Direction members assembled by the Gap in the Mall. After Blaine gave a few directions they entered the store in small groups and began to shop inconspicuously, waiting for Blaine's cue to begin performing. Blaine and Kurt were hiding behind a scarf display. Blaine watched Sebastian ring up a girl at the register. She looked like she was trying to flirt, and kept twirling her hair. Hah. Sebastian continued to smile while folding her purchases.

"This is insane, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know if he even wants to be my boyfriend, I- we shouldn't do this," Blaine started walking towards the exit but Kurt grabbed onto his arm.

"Okay, okay, come on, man up. You're amazing, he's gonna love you."

Blaine looked at Kurt to make sure he wasn't just saying that to make him feel better. He scanned the crowd for Finn and nodded. There was no backing out now.

"_BUM BUM BUM BUM….BUM BUM BUM BUM…"_ The New Directions began the background chorales for _When I Get You Alone_ by Robin Thicke.

Blaine gathered his courage and stalked over to Sebastian who was ringing up his next customer. Sebastian looked up and gave Blaine an incredulous smile when he recognized him and realized what he was doing.

"_BABY GIRL, WHERE YOU AT, GOT NO STRINGS GOT NONE ATTATCHED, CAN'T STOP THAT FEELING FOR LONG NO, OOOHHH…"_

Blaine continued to follow Sebastian around The Gap, while he worked under the steady glare of his manager, folding sweaters and scanning markdowns. Blaine and the New Directions members danced around the store, hopping onto display tables and trying on sunglasses for fun.

"_AND I WANT YOU SO BAD…BECAUSE YOU WALK PRETTY, BECAUSE YOU TALK PRETTY, 'CAUSE YOU MAKE ME SICK AND I'M NOT LEAVING, 'TIL YOUR LEAVING..."_

By the end of the song, Blaine was far too engrossed in his performance to even notice Sebastian's reactions. He grabbed a roll of socks and slid on his knees towards the register for Sebastian to ring them up, _"WHEN I GET YOU ALONEEEEEE!"_

* * *

Blaine sat outside of the store on a bench with Kurt. All of the other New Direction members had left already and Blaine was waiting for Sebastian's shift to end so that they could talk. His stomach was flip-flopping and his face was burning.

"Was it too much? Yeah it was too much," Blaine said to Kurt, not even waiting for him to reply. He saw Sebastian walk out of the store and stood up, trying to look confident. He smiled. "Sebastian, hey!"

"What the hell were you doing?" asked Sebastian.

"What?"

"I just got fired. You can't just bust a groove in the middle of someone's workplace."

"But they loved it," said Blaine, referring to the customers in the store who had enjoyed their free performance.

"Well my boss didn't. Blaine, let's just be clear here. This…this isn't love. I know it's Valentine's Day but we're not in a relationship. Don't get me wrong, I would totally be up for fucking again, but only if you know that's all it's ever gonna be."

Blaine's face fell. He wished he had stood further away from Kurt because he must have heard that. Sebastian patted Blaine's shoulder and walked away. Blaine couldn't turn around; he didn't want Kurt to see the shame on his face, and he didn't want to see the look of disbelief on Kurt's that he was imagining.

"Blaine?" Kurt walked up to Blaine and took his hand. "His loss, okay? You were amazing in there. Any guy would be lucky to have you do that for him."

"I…I don't think I've ever made that big of a fool of myself…which is really saying something because I've performed at theme parks. I just can't believe I made it all up in my head."

Kurt put his hands on Blaine's shoulders and turned him so that they were facing each other. "Okay can I ask you something? Because we've always been completely honest with each other."

Blaine couldn't meet Kurt's eyes. Maybe Kurt had always been honest with him, but Blaine sure hadn't been honest with Kurt. If he had been, he would have told him that he had strong feelings for him, and then he wouldn't have had sex with Sebastian, and wouldn't have hidden that from Kurt as well.

"You and I, we hang out, we sing flirty duets together, you know my coffee order. Was I supposed to think that was nothing?"

Blaine looked at Kurt now, if only to make sure that he had really just said that. What? Had Blaine been leading Kurt on? Wait, had Kurt thought he was going to be serenaded? Did Kurt want to be serenaded? Did Kurt like Blaine?

"Wow. I…I really am clueless. Everyone was telling for weeks that you liked me and I just always figured…I thought that when I asked you out before that was just…Look, Kurt? I don't know what I'm doing." Blaine laughed, feeling completely stunned. "I pretend like I do, and I know how to act it out in song, but the truth is…I've never been anyone's boyfriend."

"Me either," said Kurt.

Blaine sighed. If there was ever an opportunity to ask Kurt Hummel out it was right now, but Blaine couldn't do it. He had wanted to be with Kurt for months and had imagined it…parts of it, but never seriously thought of what he would do if he actually had a chance. And now that he could be a boyfriend, or have a boyfriend, he wasn't ready. He had already tasted disappointment, if not a teenage radio-heartbreak this afternoon and wasn't ready to lose his best friend because he wasn't sure he could open up his heart right now.

"Let me be really clear about something," said Blaine. Oh god, this already sounded like a bad breakup speech. "I really, really care about you. But as you and twenty other mortified shoppers saw, I'm not very good at romance. I don't want to screw this up. I hated fighting with you Kurt, and I'm still so confused about our relationship. I don't think I'm ready to be a boyfriend right now."

Kurt stared at the ground for a moment, and then smiled. "So it's just like 'When Harry Met Sally'." He met Blaine's eyes and grinned. "But I get to play Meg Ryan."

"Deal," laughed Blaine. "Don't they get together in the end?"

Kurt didn't answer. He started walking towards the water fountain, and sat down on its edge. Once Blaine joined him Kurt took a pair of yellow sunglasses out of his pocket.

"Here, I shop lifted these for you. Happy Valentine's Day." He tossed them to Blaine.

"Best Valentine's Day gift ever," said Blaine, putting them on.

"So, you and Sebastian…" began Kurt.

"I should have told you," interrupted Blaine. "It was when we were fighting. I was upset, and he was there. I thought it meant something, but I guess I was wrong." Blaine rolled his eyes.

"He doesn't deserve you," said Kurt. "You know that right? You're worth so much more than a hook up. You're special."

"You're just saying this because you feel bad for me."

"I'm telling you the honest to god truth. Pity is only keeping me from asking all about what that douchebag looks like naked."

"I appreciate it," laughed Blaine.

"You know what?" said Kurt, suddenly excited. "I think I know a way that we could salvage this Valentine's Day."

* * *

"I have to admit, I see what all the excitement is about," said Blaine eating his sixth breadstick of the evening.

"You see? And this is perfect because this would have been our first date if I wasn't such a stuck up prick a few months ago," said Kurt.

Blaine nearly choked. "Is this a date?"

"No! No, no no no. I mean, if you want- no. This is a friend date. It's way too much pressure for a first date on Valentine's Day, anyway," said Kurt.

"So we're just friends," clarified Blaine. "It's been like four hours, I don't want to screw this up already."

"As of now, yes."

Blaine noticed some New Directions members coming into the restaurant and grabbing booths and tables.

"That's my cue, hold on a sec!" Kurt left Blaine at the booth and hopped up on a stage with a microphone that Blaine was wondering about earlier.

"Testing, one, two, three, testing," said Kurt into the microphone. "So, Happy Valentine's Day everybody. For those of you that don't know who I am, I'm Kurt Hummel and welcome to my first ever Lonely Hearts Club Dinner. Whether you're single with hope or madly in love and here because I forced you to come out here and support me, sit back and enjoy. And to all the singles out there, this is our year…Blaine Anderson, if you'll join me."

Blaine stood up and walked onto the stage and took the microphone Kurt placed in his hand. Music began to play and Blaine smiled, recognizing the tune at once. He and Kurt would be able to perform their greatest love song to the glee club after all, '_Silly Love Songs'_. Kurt gave Blaine a sort of curtsey, allowing him to take the first verse.

"_YOU'D THINK THAT PEOPLE WOULD HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF SILLY LOVE SONGS…BUT I LOOK AROUND ME AND I SEE IT ISN'T SO, OH NO"_

Blaine on put his stolen sunglasses and sang about love in a mediocre Italian restaurant with his best friend, and that turned out to be much better than singing about sex in The Gap.

"_SOME PEOPLE WANNA FILL THE WORLD WITH SILLY LOVE SONGS, AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT? I'D LIKE TO KNOW…'CAUSE HERE I GO…AGAIN!"_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 10: Blame it on the Alcohol**

"Welcome!" Rachel opened her front door and Blaine's eyes bulged at the most hideous dress he had ever seen in his life.

He, along with the other members of the New Directions had been invited to Rachel's house for a party. Ironically, it was Alcohol Awareness Week at McKinley High, but as Santana has pointed out, she was aware of how much fun alcohol could be, and anyone who wasn't would soon learn. Blaine was also aware of how detrimental alcohol could be, so he vowed not to have a Scandals repeat this night.

"So this is your dad's Oscar room," said Kurt as he, Rachel, Finn and Blaine walked down the staircase to Rachel's basement.

"Yes. They transformed our ordinary basement to throw our annual Oscar parties," said Rachel.

"Is that a stage?" asked Blaine, noticing a karaoke machine by the raised platform.

"I like to give impromptu performances for our neighbors sometimes," said Rachel. "Hey girlfriend, having fun?" she asked Quinn who was walking by, looking miserable.

"Yeah…awesome party," she mumbled.

"Okay, let's go over the rules," said Rachel loudly. "Everybody gets two drink tickets to keep things from getting out of hand." She shoved two pink tickets each into Kurt and Blaine's hands.

"We're serving wine coolers today, that is our specialty drink. It's actually…all that we have. Brittany, remember the rules! No sitting on anything! Okay everybody…cheers!"

"Oh my god, we need to leave, right now," Kurt muttered in Blaine's ear.

"Kurt, you haven't even had a _wine cooler_ yet, how could you possibly go?" said Blaine.

Kurt stared at Blaine, a look of disbelief on his face.

"I'm kidding, we should absolutely leave."

"Hold up guys!" said Puckerman, putting his arms around both boys. "I just convinced Rachel to break into her dads' liquor cabinet, have no fear!"

Blaine cheered along with everyone else, and Tina hooked up her ipod to Rachel's Dads' stereo system.

"See? It's better already!" said Blaine to Kurt.

"Body shots!" screamed Santana. She pushed Brittany onto the coffee table and exposed her stomach once she was lying down. Sam ran upstairs to grab salt and lime slices, accompanied by Quinn.

"Are you going to- um?" Kurt gestured to the coffee table where Santana was now tickling Brittany's stomach.

"Of course! Aren't you?" said Blaine, excited.

"I don't know. Last time I got drunk I puked over Miss Pillsbury."

"Why were you drinking with the school guidance consoler?" asked Blaine.

Kurt laughed. "No, April Rhodes told me to drink before school. It was stupid, I know." Kurt pressed his lips together.

"Why would you drink before school?"

"Just to take the edge off, face the bullies…Karofsky."

"Aww, Kurt," Blaine hugged him. "Well drinking in the right environment will be fun. You'll see."

Sam and Quinn returned with a small bowl of lime slices and a saltshaker. Santana claimed first dibs, on the shots or on Brittany, Blaine wasn't sure. She took three in a row, insisting that she wanted to make sure everyone saw how it was done, but Blaine thought it was an excuse to swirl her tongue all over Brittany.

Rachel, Puck, and Lauren went next and then Blaine was called up. He shook the shaker once, lower, beneath Brittany's bellybutton. He swooped his tongue onto the crystals and cringed, threw the tequila down his throat and as quickly as possible crushed into the lime's skin, drawing all of its juice. Finn clapped him on the back and Blaine motioned for Kurt to go next. He shook his head, continually rubbing his thumb over his knuckles.

"I'll just watch. I'll have something else to drink later."

Blaine shrugged and got back in line again behind Artie. "You better, Finn is driving you home so you have no excuse not to go hard!"

After a few more shots he was dancing on stage with Mercedes and Quinn, waiting for his brain's okay to let himself go. It was a nice change having friends grind on him instead of forty-year-old men.

"Kurt! Kurt come dance! I want to see your shimmy!" Blaine called.

Kurt laughed and joined Blaine and the two girls on stage. Blaine couldn't keep the smile off of his face. He mock shimmy-ed back at Kurt, and let his hands graze Kurt's hips a few times. Gradually Blaine felt the alcohol taking its effect. His dancing became more extreme and Kurt had to back up to avoid being smacked. Blaine felt the familiar feeling of lost inhibition.

"How drunk are you?" he asked Kurt. "I feel so…happy and I just want to like, play with a puppy, you know?"

"Blaine, honey, I'm not drunk at all," said Kurt.

"What? You've got to live! It will be my duty to get you a drink!" Blaine tripped off the stage in search of some drinks for Kurt.

"Puck! Yo, I need some shots for Kurt. He is far too sober at this hour my Jewish brethren," said Blaine to Puck who was acting as bartender.

"Wow, I officially love drunk Blaine," said Puck. "Here man, bottoms up!"

Blaine grabbed the shot and drank it before he realized it was for Kurt. "Wait, no, shit. That wasn't for me. Does Kurt like beer? Do we have beer? Wine coolers suck."

Sam escaped an attack from Santana and joined Blaine and Puck. "Going hard tonight Blaine?"

"Yes, I'm going to make Kurt drunk. Then we'll make out and play with puppies."

"Oh man, Kurt needs to hear this."

"No, Shhh!" Blaine waved his arm in front of Sam. "No, Kurt just needs something to drink, I promise, then it will be fine."

Puck gave Blaine a cup of beer in a red solo cup. "Here, go take that to your man. Go get him, tiger!"

Blaine danced his way to Kurt who was now talking with Finn. Finn! Blaine loved that guy. He was the best. Blaine sipped his beer, forgetting it was for Kurt. Aw, Finn wasn't drinking either. Blaine figured Finn and Kurt were brothers for a reason. Brothers!

"Hey! It's so cool that you and Kurt are brothers!" Blaine wrapped his arm around Finn's waist, since he couldn't reach his shoulders. "Brothers! Right? Wow. You're so tall…"

"You having fun Blaine?" asked Kurt, laughing. Blaine loved Kurt's laugh. His eyes got all crinkly.

"Yeah…this is the best party ever!" Blaine felt himself collapse a bit into Kurt and Kurt walked him over to the sofa to sit down.

"Blaine I'm going to get you some water okay? Just stay here." Kurt let go of Blaine and he slumped into the sofa cushions. He watched Finn and Rachel sit down on the stage together, talking. That was seriously the ugliest dress he had ever seen.

"Okay, handsome, here you go." Kurt put a cup of water into Blaine's hands, removing the cup of beer. He drank like he was told.

"Rachel looks awful."

Kurt snorted, laughing suddenly. "I know! I've been thinking it all night! But I'm proud of her, at least she's handling things well with Finn being here."

"Yeah, I guess. Being exes sucks. Or being turned down. Hey remember when I asked you out? That was stupid…"

"It wasn't stupid. I was stupid. I was too worried about being a Cheerio. I was a jerk to you."

"Kurt you looked so good in your Cheerios uniform. I had this dream that-"

"LET'S PLAY SPIN THE BOTTLE!" Rachel had stood up and was shouting to the room at large. "WHO WANTS TO PLAY SPIN THE BOTTLE?"

"SPIN THE BOTTLE! I LOVE THAT GAME!" Blaine stood up, and realized how drunk he was from the sudden movement. He wobbled to the center of the basement where everyone else had gathered on the floor in a circle and sat down, using Tina as support. Kurt sat down next to Blaine and kept asking him to finish his story but Blaine was too interested in the game. Brittany and Sam were kissing now, ignoring Santana's shouting.

"My turn!" yelled Rachel after Santana had yanked them apart. Rachel spun and the bottle and stopped, pointing towards Blaine.

"OOOHHHHH!" everyone shouted and Blaine put up his hands in defense.

"This is outstanding!" yelled Kurt.

"Blaine Anderson, I am going to rock your world," said Rachel. Blaine leaned in and met Rachel's lips over the bottle beneath them. She tasted like strawberry cough syrup. Blaine heard the others shouting "more more more!" so he obliged. He put his hand on Rachel's neck and continued to kiss her, enjoying it more and more with every second. Wow, she wasn't so bad. This whole thing wasn't so bad. Rachel was a good enough kisser, and wasn't so hard and rough like Sebastian. She was softer, and smaller, and Rachel was pretty cute now that Blaine was thinking about it.

"Okay I think we've had enough of that!" said Kurt and Rachel drew away from Blaine.

"Your face…tastes awesome," she said. "I think I've found myself a new duet partner!" she yelled to the New Directions.

Blaine scrambled to the stage, excited to know that he'd be able to use the karaoke machine after all. Finn helped them turn it on and he and Rachel began to belt a killer rendition of '_Don't You Want Me_'. Blaine loved a good crowd, and drunken crowds tended to shout more. The more he sang with Rachel the more he realized how good of a couple they made. They were both born to perform, both had a pathological need for attention, were extremely talented, rather short, in love with Barbara Streisand and best friends with Kurt. Kurt. Oh. Blaine looked over at Kurt. He was sitting on the piano bench, looking longingly at the couples lounging on the floor. Everyone was sleepy and leaning on one other, drinking water that Finn and Kurt had passed around. He felt bad that Kurt hadn't drank tonight, but he couldn't let Kurt's feelings get in the way of a performance. When their song was done Tina and Mercedes applauded. Puck had fallen asleep on the couch with Sam.

"Blaine?" Blaine looked around and saw Kurt walking up to him. "It's getting late and Finn wants to head out. Ready to go?"

"Aww already? But Rachel and I were gonna do another song!"

"You can do that later," Kurt grabbed onto Blaine's arm and began steering him towards the staircase where Finn was waiting.

"Bye guys! I love everybody in this basement!"

"We love you too drunk Blaine!" shouted Mike.

Blaine allowed himself to be pushed up the stairs, out of the house and into the car. Kurt buckled Blaine in since he had become incapable of doing so himself.

"Thanks mom," he slurred before dozing off.

"Blaine. Blaine, come on we've got to get you inside."

"What?" Blaine felt someone pulling at him. "I'm trying to sleep, Cooper."

"It's Kurt you idiot. Let's go, and be quiet. We don't want my dad to wake up and hear us."

Kurt began pushing Blaine into the house but Blaine was having trouble moving his feet.

"Let me," said Finn. He picked Blaine up and slung him over his back.

"Weeee!" shouted Blaine.

"Shh! Quiet, Blaine!"

Blaine behaved while Finn the Giant carried him to Kurt's bedroom. Finn flopped him onto Kurt's bed and Blaine giggled. "Finn you're so tall, I bet you could be in the next Space Jams movie!"

"Goodnight Blaine…make sure he sleeps on his side okay? And just text me if you need anything." Finn closed the door and Blaine stretched out onto Kurt's bed.

"You're bed is comfy. I'm comfy. Why didn't you drink?"

"I just didn't want to get too sloppy," said Kurt as he walked down the hall to the bathroom to brush his teeth and change. "Stay, Blaine. Shh," he hissed behind him.

Blaine rolled his head from side to side, watching his line of vision blur until Kurt returned, dressed in grey sweatpants and a white tee shirt.

"Are you calling me sloppy? I'm like, the opposite of that. I am like a graceful figure skater gliding on the frozen shores of… Kurt! Kurt, listen, listen. You need to drink. I can't be drunk alone. It's not as fun as you'd think. Ooh! Let's dance to Single Ladies again!"

"Blaine, calm down. My dad and Carole don't know you're here. We have to be quiet."

"Like spies?" Blaine slid off of the bed and began rolling around on the ground while Kurt watched him in disbelief.

"You're like an eight-year-old," he said.

"Kurrrrrrrt! I feel so stupid now. I'm so drunk. This is a lovely drunk, you're missing out. You will never know the true pleasure of letting go. We'll have to tell Rachel to throw another party."

"Miss her already? You seemed to enjoy kissing her," said Kurt, walking over to his bed and sitting down.

"She's actually kind of awesome. She tasted like wine coolers and talent."

"How do you taste like talent?"

"Well come over here and I'll show you."

"Not happening," said Kurt.

"Whyyyyy?" Blaine whined. "Kurt you look sexy. I just wanna…I wanna kiss your face. Can I feel your hair? I've always wanted to do it." Before waiting for a response Blaine got off of the floor and ran to Kurt with such enthusiasm that when he reached out to touch his hair, Blaine lost balance and pushed Kurt down on the bed.

"It's so thick!"

"Blaine get off of me or I will push you off of this bed!" whisper-shouted Kurt.

"Boo, you're no fun," pouted Blaine.

"Blaine, oh god you're helpless," said Kurt. He untangled himself from Blaine and pulled off Blaine's shoes and extra sweater, leaving him in his jeans and undershirt. "Do you want to borrow some pajamas?"

"You're just trying to see me naked."

"Honestly, I just want to go to sleep."

"Me too! But first…I need to throw up," Blaine felt his stomach turning and he jumped off of the bed and made it to the hall toilet before hurling into the bowl.

"Oh god," said Kurt from his room.

Blaine heaved, emptying his stomach, feeling all of his muscles contract. Kurt rubbed his back.

"Shhh, you're fine, you're fine," he soothed.

Blaine leaned his head on his arm, feeling awful. "Shit Kurt I'm sorry, this is gross, don't even look at me," he mumbled.

"It's okay, I'm not judging you," said Kurt making small circles on Blaine's back.

"I was worse than this with Sebastian. I don't even remember a lot of it," said Blaine.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want-"

"Kurt, no. No. I need to tell you this. I think you're the greatest. Like, the best. I've tried acting cool, I've tried to cheer you up but I don't know how. I feel like it always ends up with you taking care of me and – excuse me." Blaine heaved into the toilet again. He accepted some toilet paper from Kurt and wiped his mouth. "Ew. Gross. I'm gross. Fuck, I slept with Sebastian, Kurt I don't even…I….I don't remember what I was trying to say."

"Don't worry about it. You're fine now. I'm going to get you some water okay? Stay here." Kurt pushed some more tissues into Blaine's hand before leaving him. A few moments later, Blaine felt Kurt pull him to his feet and walk him to bed. He heard the toilet flush as he gulped down as much water as he could and two Advil pills. His eyes began to close of their own will.

* * *

"Hey what's this? Today was the day you were gonna teach me all about brunch!"

"I'll be down in a sec."

Blaine heard people talking but couldn't make sense of it. He sat up suddenly and watched blurs of colors whirl and spin in front of his eyes. He smashed them shut immediately.

"Where am I?" he slurred, becoming repulsed by the taste in his mouth.

"Oh uh…I'm sorry. My bad."

Blaine slumped back into bed, trying to figure out where he was and what had happened last night. He had gone to Rachel's for the party…the party. Oh. So that meant he was in Kurt's bed. Kurt's…bed. Kurt! And Burt had just seen him! Oh god. What did he do? Blaine ripped the covers off of his body and thanked the gods that he was still dressed. Hopefully he hadn't done anything too stupid.

"Well this is going to be interesting to explain."

Blaine whipped his head and winced as lights popped in front of his eyes again. Kurt was moisturizing his face at his vanity.

"I'm sorry," said Blaine immediately.

"For?"

"I don't know what I did yet, but I'm sure I did something stupid."

"You weren't too terrible. You were pretty entertaining actually… do you remember anything?"

"I…I kissed someone. A good kisser. Oh…was that…?" Blaine looked up at Kurt.

"…Rachel," said Kurt.

"Oh…oh wow. Okay that sounds kind of familiar now. The party was fun…you didn't drink!" Blaine shouted without warning making Kurt flinch.

"Well, no, I didn't-"

"Seriously? I got hammered and now I feel like shit and you, you're just standing there like Mr. Straight Edge Clean Guy, moisturizing your baby ass skin."

"Mr. Straight Edge Clean Guy? Wow. Someone's grouchy when they're hung-over. You could say thank you. I took care of your drunk ass and didn't even make fun of you when you threw up."

"Oh god," Blaine put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry Kurt. Wow, did I do anything embarrassing? Well besides for kiss Rachel? Did I say anything?"

"No," said Kurt. "No, you…you didn't. Come on, I'll give you a ride home."

* * *

Blaine spent Sunday in recovery, but his mind was racing. He had to have done something stupid, Kurt was probably just lying to make him feel better. Blaine figured that his shot with Kurt was over. He had been a mess, and threw up, and kissed Rachel. And…liked it? Something was wrong, Blaine was gay. Well he thought he had been gay until last night. He _had_ dated a few girls in middle school. It wasn't until high school that he started looking at boys. But someone could like both right? Or someone could change their mind. Rachel was pretty, and Blaine loved the way that she dressed, although he would never tell Kurt that. Their duets were unstoppable and the making out was kind of hot. Besides, Rachel wasn't even that curvy anyway so maybe it'd be like…what. No. Time to stop thinking.

Blaine went to The Lima Bean with Kurt after school dressed as nicely as possible to make up for the state he was in Saturday.

"And he's alive!" said Kurt instead of 'hello'.

"I didn't drink that much!" said Blaine, trying to laugh it off.

"Are you kidding? You spent the entire night sucking Rachel Berry's face. That, sir, is what we call rock bottom."

Blaine felt his phone begin to vibrate so he fished it out of his pocket after grabbing his medium drip. "Speak of the devil," he said once he saw who was calling. "Hi Rachel, Kurt and I were just talking about you!"

"You're such a cutie pie with your blazer and your pants," said Rachel. She sounded very giggly. "So I have a question for you. I wanted to know if you'd like to go out tomorrow night. They're showing Love Story at the Revival Theatre at eight," said Rachel.

"Is she drunk?" Kurt laughed into Blaine's free ear. Blaine waved him away.

"Shh, oh yeah? Uhh huh. Alright I'll see you then. Okay bye." Blaine ended his call with Rachel and looked at Kurt with a shocked smile. "Rachel just asked me out."

"That's amazing," said Kurt while Blaine got up to throw out his empty sugar packets. "She's got a girl crush on you. Wait a second, why'd you say yes? You can't lead her on."

"Who said I'm leading her on?" asked Blaine.

"You can't be serious."

"When we kissed it…it felt good." Rock bottom his ass. Rachel was an entire flight of stairs up from Sebastian.

"It felt good because you were drunk," said Kurt.

"What's the harm in going on one, crummy little date?"

"You're gay, Blaine."

"I thought I was, but I've never even had a boyfriend before. Isn't this the time you're supposed to figure stuff out?"

"I cannot believe I'm hearing this right now."

"Maybe I'm bi, I don't know…" said Blaine, stirring his drink.

"Bisexual is a term that gay guys use in high school when they want to hold hands with girls and feel like a normal person for a change."

Blaine was taken aback by Kurt's anger. Who was he to criticize Blaine's lifestyle?

"Wait wait wait, why are you so angry?" he asked.

"Because I look up to you. I admire how proud you are of who you are. I know what it's like to be in the closet and here you are about to tip-toe back in."

What could Kurt possibly admire about Blaine? He was a mess.

"I'm really sorry if this hurts your feelings, or your pride or whatever but however confusing it might be for you, it's actually a lot more confusing for me. You're one hundred percent sure who you are, fantastic. Well, maybe we all can't be so lucky."

"Yeah, I've had a lot of luck Blaine. I was really lucky to be assaulted by a bully who threatened to kill me."

"And why did he do that?"

"Because he didn't like who I was," said Kurt.

Hmm, so Kurt didn't like the new questioning Blaine. He was right, Kurt was only his best friend because he was the only gay guy around Lima besides for Sebastian, but he was a douche. The second he showed an interest in a girl, he became an outsider to Kurt's world.

"Sort of, exactly what you're saying to me right now isn't it? I am searching, okay? I'm honestly just trying to figure out who I am, and for you of all people to get down on me for that? I didn't think that's who you were. I'll see ya." Blaine stood up, overwhelmed by how quickly he had become so furious and made for the door. "I'd say bye but I wouldn't want to make you angry," he added before leaving.

* * *

The next evening Blaine dressed up as Oliver from Love Story. He had on tight fitting dark jeans and a light blue dress shirt. He tried to make his hair loose and wavy, but it just looked like he had been in a wind turbine. His outfit could have looked better with Kurt's help but they hadn't talked since The Lima Bean. Blaine wondered how he could ever do right by Kurt. First he wasn't good enough for him, and when he tried to move on that upset Kurt, too. He drove his car to downtown Lima, where he was meeting Rachel, and squeezed into a spot by the curb. From his parking spot he could see Rachel standing outside of the theatre, dressed as Jenny, complete with her signature pink hat. Blaine waved to her and watched her smile grow larger with each step he took towards her.

"Hi Blaine! Oh this is so exciting, you make such a wonderful Oliver!"

"And you, Jenny."

"Let's go get our tickets!" Rachel placed her arm in Blaine's and they both walked towards the ticket window.

"Next!" called the employee behind the glass. Rachel stayed firmly in place, as Blaine realized that this was a real date. He stepped up.

"Hi, yes, two tickets for Love Actually," he said.

"That will be nineteen fifty," said the woman.

Blaine handed her a twenty and waited for his change.

"Enjoy."

Rachel popped up and grabbed onto Blaine's arm again. "So how were you after the party? I know Kurt and Finn took you home. Finn didn't say anything about me…did he?"

"Uh…no, not that I can recall. He was pretty quiet. I mean, maybe he did but I just don't remember. I was pretty out of it."

"Oh. Well I guess it's possible. I had a great time, and my dads didn't even find out! Of course, I've told them not to go into the basement because I'm setting up a surprise for them so now I need to figure something out."

"Hmm." Blaine felt that their conversation flowed easily enough, but without the haze of alcohol Rachel seemed more irritating than usual. They took their seats in the almost empty theatre.

"Want me to get us some popcorn?" Blaine offered.

"I've got something better." Rachel giggled and pulled a flask of whiskey out of her purse.

"I thought we could get the party started early; soon I'll have song-writing gold!"

Blaine accepted and the two of them spoke the dialogue of the movie, a little louder than necessary, as they were both a little tipsy. Blaine enjoyed Rachel's company more when she wasn't talking about herself, but this was a rare occurrence. He didn't know how Finn put up with her for so long. He wondered if Finn even knew that he was on a date with his ex-girlfriend.

"Oh this was so much fun, Blaine! Who needs Hummel-Hudson Friday nights, anyway?" Blaine was about to agree when all of the sudden Rachel's lip quivered and she began to cry.

"Rachel, what? What's wrong? Don't cry, I-" Blaine wrapped his arms around her and let Rachel lean into him.

"I'm sorry, I just miss Finn so much. I don't want to ruin our date, this is so stupid."

"No, it's okay. Just, shhh, let's go find somewhere to sit." Blaine led Rachel to a bench outside of the theater. She got a few tissues out of her purse and blew her nose loudly. The girl was becoming less appealing by the second.

"Oh Blaine, I don't know what to do. Finn was my everything and I ruined it all, trying to make him jealous."

"Don't worry, I understand that perfectly," said Blaine.

"Why? What happened to you?" asked Rachel, still sniffling.

"Oh, I sort of tried to make Kurt jealous with Sebastian but that ended up backfiring on me. It's a long story." Rachel let out another loud sob.

"What? What did I do?"

"Blaine you're so _gay_! Why did you agree to this? This was so dumb, this just…I-"

"No, Rachel! I like you. Listen, you are a beautiful, talented, brilliant girl. Maybe we're both just a little heartbroken tonight. Maybe it's just bad timing."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I mean you just got out of a long-term relationship, I was involved with Kurt and Sebastian and…let's just take things slow. How about some ice cream?"

"Okay, that sounds nice."

Rachel spent the next hour telling Blaine about how far sexually she had gone with Finn and kept asking his opinion about how far he thought Quinn had gone with Finn, or if Finn disliked the fact that Rachel was Jewish and no longer in the Chastity club. Blaine avoided many of these questions by slurping up the ice cream that was dribbling down his cone and by pretending he couldn't hear her over the music playing in the shop. No amount of time would ever bring Blaine Anderson to want to date, kiss, or spend anymore alone time with Rachel Berry after that night.

* * *

At school the following day, the glee club was back stage racked with nerves. They were performing for the Alcohol Awareness Week assembly and were extremely ill prepared.

"Guys, I'm really nervous," said Brittany. "Ke$ha's been a cultural icon for weeks and I really wanna do her music justice."

"We haven't had enough rehearsal," said Sam.

"Or any at all," said Mercedes.

"Yeah most of our assembly performances usually end in some sort of riot," said Finn.

"Never fear teammates," said Rachel approaching them with a giant jug of liquid. "Now it's a Broadway tradition for nervous performers to take a shot of whiskey before going on to calm their nerves and to mask the stench of bad dental hygiene. I've mixed us a playful showbiz cocktail of what was left in my dads' liquor cabinet. There's some brandy, bourbon, port wine, and scotch in here and also a little bit of kool aid and some crumbled up Oreos."

Santana took a sip of her drink that Rachel had poured out. "Oh my god this tastes like cough syrup."

"There's also some cough syrup in there."

Blaine took a swig of his concoction and immediately regretted it. He felt it swirl in his stomach and make its way back up to his throat. He coughed it down and Rachel winked at him. Brittany seemed to enjoy it and downed her whole cup and Finn's.

On stage, Principal Figgins introduced them. "And now performing Tick and also Tock by Key dollar sign ha, the New Directions!"

"_WAKE UP IN THE MORNING FEELING LIKE P. DIDDY. GRAB MY GLASSES I'M OUT THE DOOR I'M GONNA HIT THE CITY. BEFORE I LEAVE BRUSH MY TEETH WITH A BOTTLE OF JACK, 'CAUSE WHEN I LEAVE FOR THE NIGHT I AIN'T COMING BACK."_

Brittany took lead of 'Tik Tok' and was doing an amazing job. Blaine was glad to be in the background for once. He didn't feel like himself, with his confusion with Kurt and Rachel. He was positive that Kurt wasn't telling him everything about Saturday night, and now they were in a stupid fight over Blaine's sexual identity. Who was he kidding though? He didn't like Rachel. He was just trying to make himself look less like an idiot in front of Kurt, but that was becoming an all too common theme. Blaine stared at Kurt who was near the front of the stage and enjoying the performance. He hadn't drunk any of Rachel's death cocktail so that was probably why. Blaine was actually impressed with how well Brittany was performing, considering- SPLAT.

Oh, gross. Brittany had spewed vomit all over Rachel towards the end of their song. Well if one person throws up that can usually trigger- yeah. Santana lost it too.

"Everybody drink responsibly," said Brittany and Blaine held back a laugh.

Luckily, Principal Figgins was easily fooled. He believed that the New Directions had rigged fake vomit to show the school the danger of drinking irresponsibly and had given them all coupons for frozen yogurt. Mr. Schuster wasn't as naive. He gave them a speech about underage drinking and made them promise to not drink until Nationals. Blaine signed his agreement gladly; alcohol hadn't helped him at all the last few months.

* * *

Ready to apologize to Kurt, Blaine went to The Lima Bean after school, hoping to find Kurt there. He saw him sitting with Rachel. Blaine went to order his coffee, playing it cool. He guessed this meant that he had to talk to Rachel now too. He turned to check on them and saw Rachel walking towards him. He acted like he had only just noticed she was there. "Hey Rachel, what's going on? What's-"

Blaine was cut off because Rachel had decided it was the perfect moment to plant a long kiss on his lips. She broke apart and looked at his face, waiting for Blaine to say something.

"Huh," said Blaine, still caught off guard. "Yep. I'm gay. One hundred percent gay. Thank you so much for clearing that up for me Rachel. Listen, save my space in line will you? I've gotta go hit the restroom."

Blaine ducked away in the mens' room and composed himself, praying that Rachel would be gone by the time he emerged. When he left his sanctuary a few minutes later, he found Kurt alone and looking highly amused.

He sat down across from Kurt and began to speak before Kurt could open his mouth. "I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have gotten short with you the other day. You were right. I only enjoyed kissing Rachel because I was drunk. I'm also going to apologize again for whatever I said or did to you on Saturday night, to be safe."

Kurt smiled. "I'm sorry too. You're allowed to question your sexuality; I didn't need to take it so personally. And again, you don't need to apologize about Saturday night. You weren't too difficult to take care of."

"Are we okay?"

"Perfect. But now you need to dish about your date," said Kurt.

"Ugh, no! I mean, Love Actually was wonderful of course, but Rachel was just a mess. She got drunk off of some whiskey and started crying because of Finn."

"Oh dear," said Kurt.

"Yeah. And then she started talking about how far she had gone with Finn and-"

"Ahhhh!" Kurt interupted. "No more, no more dishing!"

Blaine laughed. "Okay, I'm done. Rachel is great, but we can only be friends…ever. She wasn't too upset when I left, was she? I should apologize to her, too."

"No, she said that she had song writing gold and ran out the happiest girl in the world."

"Huh. She's something," said Blaine.

"Yes, and thank goodness she doesn't need to drink anymore to write songs," said Kurt.

"I don't want to think about drinking anything else than this delicious drip, ever gain," said Blaine. "I really hope that next week's lesson is less intense."

"Hah, you know Mr. Schu," said Kurt. "Watch it be heroine use or STDs."

"Gross, can't we just have a Spice Girls tribute already?"

"Oh my god, yes. You'd have to be Melanie C. though, since you're a boxer," said Kurt.

"And you?"

"Baby Spice, was that ever really a question?"

"You know who will be Scary? Puck!"

Blaine and Kurt laughed together, while Mr. Schuster put together a theme for next week's lesson: Sexy.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Sorry I've been away! I got terribly busy with schoolwork, and it took me forever to be satisfied with these chapters. Enjoy!

**Chapter Eleven: Sexy**

It was 11:00 in the morning and Blaine was sliding a condom onto a cucumber. He felt like he was in a bad 90s movie; he couldn't believe that public schools actually did this type of thing.

"Ah!" Blaine felt something sticky hit his cheek. He glared across the classroom at Finn who had just flung his condom at Blaine's head.

"Really, Finn?"

Mercedes giggled from her seat and Blaine rolled his eyes. Hopefully not all public school health classes involved vegetable demonstrations; maybe it was just the ones run by Miss Holiday. Blaine was glad to see her again, as she had subbed for Mr. Schu's Spanish class and the Glee club a few weeks ago, but didn't think that protecting cucumbers from STDs and pregnancies was something he'd ever have to do in real life.

Sam started to make light saber noises next to Blaine, and began to hit his cucumber against Blaine's.

"Dude…that's kinda gay," said Blaine.

"Well you'd know, wouldn't you?" mumbled Sam. He ripped his condom while trying to force it on the end of his cucumber. Suddenly Quinn's pregnancy made a lot of sense to Blaine.

* * *

Blaine was recounting his horrible sex-ed class story to Kurt in Glee when Mr. Schuster walked into the choir room and directly to the whiteboard. He backed up to show the class the word he had written on it.

"Sexy."

"I really hope that's not one of the requirements for regionals because with Berry in those tights we don't stand a chance," said Santana.

"No, this isn't about regionals," said Mr. Schu. "I'm less worried about that right now and more worried with the fact that it's become clear to me that some of you have been lacking when it comes to…uh…understanding the…the intricacies of adult relationships…"

Really?

"Anyway, along with preparing for our regionals next week, I want to spend the week educating ourselves about some of these intricacies."

"Is this the appropriate form for that?" asked Rachel, voicing Blaine's thoughts.

"Look," said Mr. Schuster. "Whenever we had issues in the past that were on our minds or giving us problems it's always helped us sing about them. So this week I have invited a special guest…Miss Holiday!"

Blaine sighed while everyone around him cheered, save for Mercedes who said, "Oh no, it's the salad lady." He really did not want to spend this class time learning about HIV. Regionals were a week away and they needed to be spending their time singing and dancing, not-

"Hit it!" yelled Miss Holiday and the jazz band started to play.

"_WE'VE BEEN HERE TOO LONG, TRYIN' TO GET ALONG PRETENDING THAT YOU'RE OH SO SHY…"_

Oh, well this might work.

Miss Holiday, Santana and Brittany began doing some sort of sexy chair dance that was causing all of the boys around Blaine to get way too excited. Kurt and Blaine met each other's eyes and gave each other 'what can you do?' looks. Blaine stood up and joined the sex riot, matching Sam's body rolls, biting his lip and shooting suggestive faces at Kurt. The problem was, every time he looked Kurt's way Kurt was crawling on furniture like an unconvincing Mimi from Rent, or doing high kicks; it was like a thirteen year old girl trying to look sexy in her bathroom mirror.

Kurt started to shimmy towards Blaine and Blaine grabbed Kurt's shoulders in an attempt to slow them down. Blaine mouthed along with Miss Holiday's lyrics, "Do You Wanna Touch?" to Kurt, motioning with his fingers that Kurt was allowed to touch him. Instead Kurt swung his hands like an angry cat and Blaine ducked to avoid being clawed at, laughing. Kurt gyrated his hips and bit his lip and Blaine became genuinely concerned. Kurt looked like he was in pain. Maybe he got a cramp? Blaine copied Kurt's move, but slowed it down, pulling Kurt to join him and thinking that if Kurt relaxed a little he might feel better. Kurt's cheeks went red and he went back to his shimmy, skipping towards Rachel. Blaine shook his head, smiling and began to dance with Quinn instead, who knew what she was doing.

Miss Holiday lead the New Directions around the piano in some sort of horny conga line, to finish off the song. They all took a moment to catch their breath.

"So, just remember. Whenever you have sex with someone you're having sex with everyone they've ever had sex with…and everybody's got a random," said Miss Holiday.

The bell rang and Mr. Schuster looked relieved. Everyone retrieved their bags and left the choir room to go to their next class.

Kurt was fixing his hair, looking at his reflection in his compact mirror. Blaine stood by him, waiting to walk to class with him.

"Are you okay?" asked Blaine. "You kept making these weird faces the whole song."

Kurt looked up from his mirror. "Those weren't weird faces those were my sexy faces."

"It just looked like…you were having gas pains, or something."

"Great." Kurt stood up and put his mirror in his messenger bag. "How am I supposed to sell sexy when I have as much sexual appeal and knowledge as a baby penguin?"

Blaine cocked his head. "We'll figure something out."

* * *

"Alright we're doing really well on geography, 80s pop culture and Turkish history but I think we really need to focus on classic literature before we go against Carmel High in a few weeks," said Artie.

Blaine looked up from his flashcards that he had made in the beginning of the semester about famous Russian dictators. He hoped that Artie would suggest a break like they usually did halfway through their meetings.

"Artie can we please stop? My brain hurts," said Tina.

"People we need to focus. These questions could be about _anything_, we need to be prepared."

"I'm hungry," said Mike.

"Fine! Just know that we're wasting precious time with-"

"Yeah, yeah, shush," said Tina. "So Blaine," Tina sat on the edge of the table where Blaine was studying. "I noticed Kurt trying to impress you in Glee today."

"What? He looked like he was in pain."

"He looked like he was trying to get your attention. And you are just about as blind as they come."

"Tina, if he wanted my attention, he would take it. Kurt doesn't have to try to impress anyone he…he does that anyway."

"Well it seems you're the exception. He couldn't take his eyes off of you for that entire song."

* * *

"Alright, so give me sensual, but don't make fun of it really try," said Blaine.

Blaine and Kurt were sitting on the edge of Kurt's bed, facing his mirror. After his Brainiac meeting Blaine decided to help Kurt 'sell sexy' as he had put it. They were practicing sexy faces in front of Kurt's mirror. Kurt narrowed his eyes, scrunched his nose and moved his neck around like he was a Chinese dragon. Blaine sucked in his lips and willed himself not to laugh.

"Okay, now try sultry."

Kurt tossed his head and raised his eyebrows and bit his lip. Blaine couldn't help but smile.

"Uh, Kurt I've gotta be honest they're all sort of looking the same."

Kurt punched his hands into his mattress, making an annoyed face now. "That's because the face I'm actually doing is uncomfortable. This is pointless, Blaine." Kurt got up from his bed and stood, facing Blaine. "I don't know how to be sexy because I don't know the first thing about sex."

Blaine smiled, seeing Kurt's cheeks go red. He rarely ever saw Kurt vulnerable; Blaine wanted to give Kurt a hundred kisses and tell him he was always sexy to him but he figured that would break a few friendship rules.

"Kurt, you're blushing!"

"I've tried watching _those_ movies but I just get horribly depressed and I think about how they were all kids once and they all have mothers and god what would their mothers think? And why would you get that tattoo there?"

"Maybe we should have a conversation about it," said Blaine, swinging his legs onto the bed in full pow-wow mode and trying not to imagine Kurt watching porn. "I'll tell you what I know."

"No, no I don't want to know the graphic details. I like romance. That's why I like Broadway musicals…because the touch of the fingertips is as sexy as it gets."

Blaine couldn't believe a person could be so pure. It made Blaine feel guilty about all of the graphic thoughts that he'd had about Kurt.

"Kurt, you're gonna have to learn about it someday."

"Well not today," said Kurt. "I think I've learned quite enough for today thank you. I think you should leave."

"Kurt-" Blaine hated being the reason that Kurt was upset but he knew that Kurt was embarrassed. "Why do you want to be sexy anyway?"

Kurt couldn't meet Blaine's eyes. "Isn't it…isn't it what everyone likes? Wouldn't you want someone to be sexually appealing?"

"There are more important things," said Blaine. "I think I'd rather someone be comfortable. Being yourself can be incredibly sexy. Don't beat yourself up about this. The right guy isn't going to care about pouty lips or anything like that. You'll be perfect to him no matter what."

Blaine waited for Kurt to say something, but he just stood in front of his dresser, eyes glued to the floor.

"I'll see you tomorrow," said Blaine. He walked out of Kurt's bedroom and headed outside to his car. He passed Mr. Hummel's Auto Shop truck on the way out and was struck with an idea.

* * *

"Need a hand?"

After school the following day Blaine made a stop to Burt's Auto Shop. He knew that if anyone could get through to Kurt there was only one man stubborn enough: Burt Hummel.

"Yeah, why don't you hand me that carburetor?" said Burt, looking up from the hood of a Pontiac.

Blaine handed him the hunk of metal. Mr. Hummel seemed impressed when Blaine placed it in his hand.

"How'd you know which one it was?"

"My dad and I rebuilt a '59 Chevy in our driveway a few years ago. One of his many attempts at bonding."

"You here looking for parts?" said Burt.

"No, actually, I wanted to talk to you about Kurt."

"Is he okay?"

Blaine took a deep breath. This was going to be uncomfortable but he thought he might as well get to the point. "Have you ever talked to him about sex?"

Burt gave Blaine an odd look. "Are you gay? Or straight? Or what?"

"I'm definitely gay," said Blaine.

"Okay, good, I mean, whatever, but good for Kurt he needs someone like you to talk to."

"Well that's kind of my point," said Blaine. "I tried talking to him but he basically puts his fingers in his ears and starts singing."

"Well when he's ready, he'll listen."

"I'm worried that it might be too late. Kurt is the most moral, honest, compassionate person I have ever met."

"Well he gets that from his mother," said Burt.

"And I'm blown away but your guys' relationship. You think my dad built a car with me because he loves cars? I think he did it because he thought getting my hands dirty might make me straight."

"Did he talk to you about this, uh, this kind of stuff?" asked Burt.

"No, I had to find out for myself," said Blaine. "The Internet is great and all the information is out there but I went searching for it. Kurt won't. And one day he'll be at a party and maybe have a few drinks and he'll meet some guy and start fooling around and he's not gonna know about using protection or STDs. I don't have the relationship with my dad that you have with Kurt. I think it would be really cool if you took advantage of that. I'm sorry if I'm over stepping."

"You are," said Burt.

"I guess that's all I had to say. I'll just let you get back to your Pontiac." Blaine put his hands in his pockets and started towards the door.

"Boy you must really care about him to come down here and tell me this."

Blaine turned around. "I do. I don't want him to get hurt." Blaine thought about his disastrous nights at Scandals with Sebastian and his stomach sank at the thought of someone taking advantage of Kurt like that.

"I appreciate it Blaine. You're a good kid."

"Just wondering, are you gonna tell Kurt that I was here?"

"That depends on how well our talk goes. I could always use a scapegoat."

* * *

Blaine was finishing his Spanish homework when Kurt called.

"Hola mi amigo de moda. Espero que estés llamando acerca de esta noche al episodio de Anatomía de Grey."

(Hello my fashionable friend. I hope you're calling about this evening's episode of Grey's Anatomy.)

"Shut up Blaine, I just had the most awkward conversation with my dad ever. And hola amigo uno."

"Thank god you're taking French. What happened?"

"My dad wanted to have…the talk."

"Ouch. Sorry to hear that."

"It was mortifying. I have pamphlets Blaine, pamphlets."

"Did you learn anything?" teased Blaine.

"More than I ever wanted to from my dad, but it's nice that he cares. At least I didn't have to put condoms on vegetables."

"And aren't you lucky because I'll never be able to look at cucumbers the same way again."

"You know it's weird, having my dad bring up sex the same week that we're learning about it in glee club…"

"Weirder things have happened. At least all the torture is condensed into one week."

"I suppose so. Say Blaine, what do you know about car shops?"

"Car shops? Not too much," said Blaine, confused.

"Well that's apparent, because I was under the impression that people go to them to get their cars fixed not TELL OTHER PEOPLE'S FATHERS THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE SEX TALKS WITH THEIR CHILDREN!"

"Kurt, no, I just-"

"Blaine Anderson do you know how embarrassing this is?! Why on earth did you have to talk to my dad? I'm perfectly capable of learning about sex on my own as hard as it may be for you to believe."

"Kurt, I'm sorry! I was just worried about you, is that so wrong?"

"Oh you always worry!"

"I just, I kept thinking about how much I regret losing my virginity to Sebastian and I wouldn't want anything like that to happen to you. I care about you, stupid. Just, take it as a compliment."

"…It's really hard to be mad at you when you pull that crap."

"Look, it's over with. Can we talk about something else?"

"Fine. But next time you piss me off I'm going to have a very eye opening discussion with your mother!"

* * *

Thankfully Kurt had fully forgiven Blaine by the next glee class. Miss Pilsbury, in lieu of Miss Holiday's Do Ya Wanna (Touch) performance had prepared a song to sing with the Celibacy club. Blaine decided to use this time to text Kurt.

(1:32)

When did Puck join the celibacy club? This is a joke right?

(1:32)

Those outfits are.

(1:33)

Really? I find them DELIGHTFUL this afternoon.

(1:33)

Oh my god I need new friends.

Blaine mocked being horrified and Kurt gave him a side-eyed smile. If Blaine didn't know any better he'd say they were being…flirty.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: Original Song**

Regionals were upon the New Directions and Blaine was no longer stunned that they only had one song picked and absolutely no choreography or costumes ready. This was typical New Directions.

"Guys, I have bad news. I have here a cease and desist letter from My Chemical Romance. We can't do _Sing_, sorry," said Mr. Schuster.

Zero songs.

"So what do we do now?" asked Mercedes.

"I think we should write our own songs for Regionals," said Rachel.

"All those in favor of voting Rachel down a second time?" said Santana. Blaine raised his hand along with everyone else.

"No, I think Rachel is right," said Quinn. "This team works best when we push ourselves and do something a little different."

"That's true," said Mercedes. "But if all the other teams are doing amazing songs we're not gonna be so good."

"You're right," said Quinn. "We're not gonna be as good. We're gonna be better. We won't be using other people's words or music; it'll be our own. Our own heart and soul, not just our voices. We have a really talented songwriter in our midst. Rachel, I was thinking maybe you and I could write a song together?"

"I'm with Quinn and Rachel. I mean if these two can agree on something it's probably something worth considering," said Finn.

"Wait, wait so suddenly you two are writing the music for regionals? No way, I think that everyone should get a chance to write a song," said Santana.

"Santana's right, we can do this," said Sam.

"What do you think Mr. Shu?" asked Mercedes.

"I think we're doing original songs for regionals!"

* * *

And what a terrible idea that was. Blaine was slumped in the choir room the next day listening to Santana sing her own horrendous creation called, "Trouty Mouth" about her boyfriend, Sam's lips. He did not look like was enjoying her song either.

"Okay, can we stop? Stop, enough with the mouth jokes."

"Sit down! I'm not finished," said Santana.

"Yes you are!" said Sam. "Mr. Schu we're not doing a song at Regionals called _Trouty Mouth_."

"You know, I have to agree with Sam on this one," said Mr. Schuster. "But such a good first effort! I just don't think it has the epic feel we need for regionals."

"Mr. Schu, if I may?" Kurt had is hand in the air, practically reaching for the ceiling. Mr. Schuster nodded.

"I know that like always, Rachel and Finn were set to sing the lead duet at Regionals, and they're songs are breathtaking. They're also numerous. I was thinking, since we're already doing something out of the ordinary by writing our own songs, maybe instead of Rachel and Finn taking the duet it could be given to someone else? Like, myself and Blaine for instance?"

Blaine whipped his head towards Kurt. What?

"Um, Kurt, if you wanted to try your hand at song writing that'd be fine, but everyone has to agree-" began Mr. Schuster.

"You know that seems pretty fair," said Mercedes.

"Perhaps some of you are forgetting that Finn and I didn't sing at all for sectionals and now you want to take regionals away from us too?" said Rachel. "This is completely unfair, I'm writing a song shouldn't I get to sing it?"

"Well we do perform three songs, maybe Rachel could sing one, Blaine and Kurt could do another and then we have our group number?" said Puck.

"Shouldn't there be auditions or something? Maybe there are others of us who are still waiting for their solo," said Tina.

"We all know Kurt's an amazing singer," said Mercedes. "And Blaine-"

"Blaine was the lead singer of the Warblers last year," said Kurt. "I think we could handle a duet. What do you say Mr. Schu?"

"How about we vote on it? Those in favor?"

Kurt raised his hand and so did Blaine and to his delight Mike, Tina, Mercedes, Puck, Brittany, and Artie all raised their hands as well.

"I guess you guys are getting a duet!"

* * *

After school Blaine went to Kurt's house to start picking out and rehearsing songs for their duet. Blaine couldn't believe that the New Directions had so much confidence in him, and he was excited at the idea of having a solo (kind of) and singing with Kurt. Blaine was scrolling through his ipod and lounging on Kurt's bed, waiting for him to finish making hot chocolate downstairs. Kurt finally waltzed in and handed a hot mug to Blaine and then sat on his floor.

"We're not going to write a song too, are we?" asked Blaine. "Because I don't think I could write a showstopper in three days."

"No, don't worry I have the perfect song for us to sing: Candles, by Hey Monday."

"Interesting pick. I like it. Hopefully the judges will too."

"Well, they will. We're going to blow this song out of the water," said Kurt.

"Can I ask you something?" said Blaine. Kurt looked up at Blaine expectantly while sipping his cocoa.

"Why did you want to sing with me?"

"Well, let's see, you're extremely talented, your voice compliments mine well, and to be perfectly honest, it's an excuse to spend more time with you."

Blaine smiled and stirred his drink.

"Now did I inflate your head enough? We need to get practicing."

Blaine and Kurt had their duet down by the end of the night and had performed it for Burt, Carole and Finn and even over the phone to Mercedes and Tina.

"It's getting late, I've got to get home," said Blaine after he hung up with Tina.

Kurt drove Blaine home and put his car into park once he pulled into Blaine's driveway.

"Well, I guess you got your wish of spending time with me," said Blaine, motioning to the clock that read 10:43 PM.

"Oh no, we're going to be practicing this entire week. I don't think you're _that_ good, Mr. Anderson."

"You better hope I don't lose my voice for Regionals then. I'll see you tomorrow." Blaine hopped out of Kurt's car, feeling confident. Performing always made him feel much cooler than he really was. He could tell he would enjoy this week, even if it meant having to suffer through the rest of the Glee Club's original compositions.

* * *

The New Directions walked into Carmel High, excited and stomachs twisting with nerves. Blaine and Kurt had practiced their rendition of 'Candles' all week. Blaine thought it was beautiful, as was the song Rachel had written, 'Get It Right'.

Blaine and Kurt took their seats and were watching Oral Intensity make a giant star of David on stage while singing 'Jesus Is My Friend'.

"I'm so glad I was never sent to a Catholic school," said Blaine.

"This is kind of catchy," admitted Kurt.

"I know I've said it a thousand times, but thanks for picking me as a duet partner."

"Your voice is amazing, Blaine. And I wouldn't want to sing this song with anyone else."

The Warblers took the stage next, performing 'Animal' by Neon Trees. Blaine watched Sebastian move around the stage. What had he been thinking? Sebastian had nearly cost him his friendship with Kurt and he was so damn cocky. Blaine felt Kurt take his hand.

"We've got this."

Mr. Schuster gathered up the New Directions backstage. "Guys, I want you to go out there and do your best. These songs are truly incredible and show off how talented you are."

Blaine put his hand on top of Santana's along with everyone else's in their group huddle. "Break!" they all yelled, bringing their arms up. Finn grabbed Blaine around the shoulders, shaking him. "Woohoo let's show them what a real show choir's like!"

Rachel went on stage first, singing her solo. It was so deep and personal that Blaine forgot she was the one who had written it. He stood offstage, watching the judge's reactions, trying to ignore his squirming stomach.

"Has anyone literally died on stage?" asked Kurt, coming up behind him.

"Are you nervous?" said Blaine.

"Please don't judge me. This is the first time I've had a solo in front of a competition audience. I have this nightmare that I'm going to forget the lyrics, or that I'm going to sing and nothing will come out. Okay you can judge me."

"I think it's adorable," said Blaine, and before he could stop himself, "I think you're adorable." He kept talking before Kurt would see his blush. "The only people that are going to be dying tonight are the people in the audience because you and I are gonna kill this thing." Blaine grabbed Kurt's shoulders, hoping it would give him motivation like Finn had done to him earlier. "Come on, let's go."

Kurt and Blaine headed out on stage, each with a microphone. The New Directions were standing in the background and began their background vocals. Kurt took a few tremulous steps forward and began to sing.

"_THE POWER LINES WENT OUT, AND I AM ALL ALONE. BUT I DON'T REALLY CARE AT ALL, NOT ANSWERING MY PHONE"_

Blaine was so nervous for Kurt that he almost forgot to sing his line. _"ALL THE GAMES YOU PLAYED, THE PROMISES YOU MADE. COULDN'T FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED ONLY DARKNESS STILL REMAINS"_

"_LOST SIGHT, COULDN'T SEE, WHEN IT WAS YOU AND ME" _sang Kurt.

Blaine turned away from the audience and sang only to Kurt. _"BLOW THE CANDLES OUT, LOOKS LIKE A SOLO TONIGHT. I'M BEGINNING TO SEE THE LIGHT. BLOW THE CANDLES OUT, LOOKS LIKE A SOLO TONIGHT. BUT I THINK I'LL BE ALRIGHT."_

Blaine watched as Kurt became more comfortable and confident. For his first time singing a duet on stage, Kurt was truly amazing. But Blaine was always impressed with Kurt. Kurt had ambition; he knew what he wanted. When bullies tried to get the better of him, Kurt could slice them with his insults and call them out on their own insecurities. But Kurt also had compassion. When Blaine thought he had Kurt figured out, Kurt gave up being popular and in the Cheerios to stay with the New Directions, he brought his father and Mrs. Hudson together in marriage, was loyal to his friends, and constantly taking care of Blaine. Whether he had a broken nose, was embarrassing himself in The Gap, too drunk to get home or being overlooked in the choir room, Kurt made sure Blaine was alright. Wow. How had Blaine never noticed that before? All this time he thought he was the one sacrificing to make Kurt happy, had it been the other way around? He thought about Kurt's Valentine's Day pity date after the Sebastian incident, he thought about how upset Kurt had been when Blaine tried to date Rachel (wow, what was he thinking?) what Tina said about Kurt trying to impress him in the choir room and what Kurt had said earlier, "to be perfectly honest, it's an excuse to spend more time with you"… "I wouldn't want to sing this song with anyone else."

Blaine had been such an idiot. Everyone had been telling him for weeks that Kurt liked Blaine back but Blaine had been too embarrassed to do anything about it. But now they were on stage together, finally singing that duet that Blaine had so badly wanted the third week of school and Blaine realized actually had a chance with the amazing boy next to him.

"_LOOKS LIKE A SOLO TONIGHT, BUT I THINK I'LL BE ALRIGHT"_

Blaine and Kurt bowed together and Blaine laughed, noticing the candles the audience was holding for the first time. They backed up to where the other New Direction members stood and the music picked up.

"_YEAH YOU MAY THINK THAT I'M A ZERO. BUT HEY! ANYONE YOU WANNA BE, PROBABLY STARTED OFF LIKE ME. AND YOU MAY SAY THAT I'M A FREAKSHOW BUT WAIT! GIMME JUST A LITTLE TIME, BET YOU'RE GONNA CHANGE YOUR MIND"_

Blaine followed the choreography blindly. The New Directions had written 'Loser Like Me' in the choir room after recollecting all of the torture they got from the kids in school and Sue Sylvester, but how it empowered their will to win. He sang but his mind was on Kurt, not being a winning-loser or whatever. He couldn't believe how dumb he'd been, telling everyone that Kurt wasn't interested in him. Blaine just hadn't had the balls to tell Kurt how he felt. He was constantly on Kurt about standing up to his adversaries and here he was, hiding in the friend zone because he didn't have the courage to get shot down again. Maybe it was the adrenalin from performing, but something clicked. Blaine wasn't afraid to tell, or show, Kurt his feelings because he knew Kurt felt the same way. He knew it would work out.

_"YOU WANNA BE A LOSER LIKE ME!"_

Blaine threw his slushie cup of confetti at the audience, breathing heavy. Tina gave him a hug and everyone walked offstage when the lights dimmed.

"That was amazing! Did you hear the crowd?" Kurt ran up to Blaine and gave him a long, sweaty hug.

"I can't believe I sang in front of an audience, and they liked me!" Kurt broke away from Blaine and looked at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "Kurt there is a moment, when you say to yourself, 'Oh, there you are. I've been looking for you forever'", Blaine took Kurt's hand. "Watching you perform on stage tonight was a moment for me, about you. You move me, Kurt. And singing that duet with you made me realize I should have done this a long time ago."

Blaine put his hand on Kurt's neck and pushed himself up on his toes towards Kurt and kissed him full on the mouth. Kurt didn't hesitate and kissed back with enthusiasm; his hand cupped Blaine's face and Blaine moved his lips in response, finding a better angle. God, why hadn't he done this before? Blaine stepped closer to Kurt and used his other hand to feel Kurt's hair. It was sweaty and more glorious than he had imagined. Kurt put his other hand on Blaine's waist and the adrenalin pumping through Blaine during their performance was the feeblest thing in the world compared to what kissing Kurt Hummel felt like. Kurt eventually broke off the kiss and stared at Blaine, lips parted in a surprised smile. Blaine wanted to kiss them again but realized Kurt expected him to say something.

"Should…should we go see if we won?"

"I think we did," said Kurt.

Blaine went to kiss him again.

* * *

"It's about damn time," said Artie.

"I think I'm going to cry," said Tina. She sniffled and Mike put his arms around her.

"Can they even hear us?"

Blaine and Kurt let go of each other, finally realizing that they had an audience.

"Missed you two at the award ceremony…we won," said Rachel, holding up a very large first place trophy.

"That's great!" said Kurt breathlessly.

"You two are unbelievable," said Santana. "It's time to go back to the bus, do you think you can keep it in your pants until then?"

The rest of the New Directions started walking from the backstage area where Kurt and Blaine had been making out to the exiting hallway and bus parked outside. Blaine looked and Kurt and saw that his cheeks were flaming red. He held out his hand and Kurt took it and they trailed behind Brittany pushing Artie in his wheelchair, unable to keep the smiles from their faces.


End file.
